An autopsy was conducted on the pilot, Richard Arlin Justice Wednesday at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Pearl, according to Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley.
Results are not final, but preliminary findings indicate Mr. Justice died from the trauma of the plane crash, not from any type of medical problems.
According to Dr. Brent Davis, deputy state medical examiner, the usual time for a completed autopsy reports is 6-8 months.
Toxicology is also being submitted to the Mississippi Forensics Lab for testing.
Justice’s body is in the care of Cleveland-Moffett Funeral Home in Amory.
The body of the passenger is in the care of Memorial Funeral Home in Columbus.
The Monroe County Emergency Management Agency confirmed that a plane crash occurred Tuesday morning.
The plane crash occurred around 6:15am. The Monroe County Airport operation office was not open for business at the time.
“We got a call around 10am that a plane was overdue, and never came in,” said Wes Kirkpatrick, airport manager for the airport. “So we sent out search and rescue.. got a signal, and recovered the aircraft.”
The small plane was headed to Madison.
“There were two souls on board,” said Kirkpatrick. “They both perished.”
Kirkpatrick said so far, no witnesses have come forward, and they are unaware of mayday calls, since the crash happened before anyone would have been at the office.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are expected to be on site Wednesday morning.
