76-year-old pilot William McClain of Acworth, Georgia was finally found after a days-long search in Ethowa County by multiple agencies.
Smith.
New tonight -- the etowah county sheriff says this man... 76-year-old pilot william mcclain of acworth georgia was finally found after a days-long search in ethowa county by multiple agencies.
His plane crashed on thursday.
Mcclain was found next to his plane in a wooded area on private property off of old baker gap road.
That's in etowah county, just south of marshall county.
The serach for mcclain included both air and ground components.
Waay 31's max cohan spoke with the sheriff and mcclain's brother and learned more about a special trip mcclain was planning to take this week.
"76year old william mcclain was testing a flight route on thursday when he crashed in etowah county.
Flying a plane he had built in his garage, mcclain had planned to fly to from his home in georgia to go visit his brother gary in arkansas on tuesday celebrate thier shared birthday."
"this past week he was to fly to tueplo, which is halfway to fayetville where he was going to take his flight for the birthday and he made it to tupelo, we understand.
He didn't ground and for whatever reason he circled the airport and decended back to atworth, georiga, and this is about halfway between tupelo and there."
Etowah county sheriff jonathon horton said mcclain fell off radar shortly before 1 pm on thursday but area authorities weren't notified until about 8 o'clock.
They began to search a 4 to 6 mile radius for the plane, an area horton described as a heavly wooded, treateruous terrain -- making it a needle in the haystack situation.
On saturday morning at around 10:20 a group of search and rescue members walking the woods off of old baker gap road found the plane and mcclains body.
Horton told me that he was not surprised that it took until the third day of the search to find mcclain -- especially since the owners of the property where the plane crashed were not home.
"even the helicopters, after the aircraft was found this morning, drones that took aerial vidoes still could not spot the vehicle above the trees to tell you how dense the area is."
Federal aviation administration officials were on site today but were unable to provide any information about what caused the crash.
Reporting in etowah county, max cohan, waay 31 news."
Sheriff horton extended thanks to all of the agencies and community volunteers
Volunteers have been on foot for hours as authorities in North Alabama are in search for a missing plane and pilot about 22 miles..
