Arlington Man Killed In Fayette County Plane Crash

Update 7/12) The name of the pilot killed in a plane crash in Fayette County has been released.

Investigators say the pilot was 51-year-old Rickie Charles Vaughn of Arlington, TN. 

The plane was a Cirrus SR20.

(Moscow, TN) What Jeff Long heard while sitting inside his Fayette County home was a plane crashing down in the field near his house.

“We heard what sounded like a rocket,” said Long. “It was like, ‘[Buzzing sound], bam!’ and that was it, just that quick.”

It was that quickly that the plane’s pilot was also killed.

“That’s bad anytime we lose a life like that,” said Long. “It’s bad, really its a tragedy.”

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Department says the plane left a Millington airport earlier in the morning and was headed to Florida when the accident happened at about 8:45 Wednesday morning.

The sheriff’s department says there were no mayday calls or reports from the pilot that anything was wrong with the plane. 

“Witnesses say they had heard the plane flying around the area earlier  then they heard a loud revving sound of the engine appeared to clip the tree line behind us and the plane went down at that point,” said Fayette County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, Ray Garcia.

“I went out and i didn’t see any smoke or anything so I just couldn’t figure out what happened,” said Long.

It’s now up to the National Transportation Safety Board to figure what plucked that airplane out of the sky and scattered it across a field, ultimately killing its pilot.

“There’s nothing we can do to help him, but we can pray for the family with their tragic loss, so sudden,” said Long.

The NTSB is flying in from Miami, FL and will begin its investigation Wednesday evening.

The sheriff’s office says the pilot’s identity likely won’t be released until Thursday.