Small plane crash claims life of pilot in rural Nebraska

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Authorities found a pilot deceased and the remnants of a crashed plane in rural Nebraska early Monday morning, hours after the plane was reported missing, according to the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff’s deputies learned of the missing plane just after 7 p.m. Sunday. Officials at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, told deputies a plane had been diverted to the Wayne Municipal Airport in Nebraska and hadn’t been heard from since.

According to KETV, a Cessna 172 went off radar Sunday night. It was last spotted in Columbia, Missouri.

"The plane just went off the radar screen," Tom Becker, manager of the Wayne Municipal Airport, told the TV station. "Fog and low visibility were the reasons for the diversion and it moved in pretty fast."

Hampered by inclement weather, the Sheriff’s Office, Nebraska State Patrol, Wayne Police Department and a host of other local agencies searched for signs of the plane. The search area, in the state’s rural northeast, was within a 40-mile radius of Sioux City.

They discovered the crash site around 1:30 a.m., according to deputies.