Plane crash in Branson

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Just reported-a small plane is reportly down behind the IMAX theater in Branson. State patrol has chopters up looking for wreckage. C of O reports all their planes are accounted for.

[Terry Beeson]

From News-Leader website....

"One person has been confirmed dead in a plane crash near Shepherd of the Hills Farm west of Branson this morning.

The pilot, who was believed to be the only person on board, is from Florida. His name and the city where he lived have not been released, officials said.

No other information is yet available about where the flight originated or where it was heading, City of Branson spokesman Jerry Adams said in a press release.

“(The plane is) completely demolished,” said Jason Preston, owner of Preston Aviation who flew over the location of the crash today. “Unless you were looking for something, you wouldn’t have known it was a plane.”

Preston said the only part of the plane that was recognizable was the tail piece. Other parts of the plane, he said, were in pieces.

Emergency responders from Taney and Stone Counties and Branson responded to the Henning Conservation Area at about 9 a.m. this morning after several reports of a twin-engine plane spiraling downward and crashing in the wooded area.

The plane apparently crashed north of the scenic overlook, officials said.

The plane was located after more than an hour in the conservation area, which is on the approach to the Taney County Airport — formerly the M. Graham Clark Airport — near College of the Ozarks.

Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokesperson with the Federal Aviation

Administration in Chicago, said no flight plan had been filed with the FAA.

“This (plane) may have been flying by visual flight rules, we’re still

trying to determine that,” she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board would be the agency in charge ofany investigation, she said.

All College of the Ozarks students, instructors and planes are accounted for said, Elizabeth Andrews, the college’s spokeswoman."