From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
ST. CLAIR COUNTY –The plane missing from Gadsden has been found in St. Clair County and the pilot is dead, according to St. Clair County Assistant Sheriff Billy Murray.
The wreckage of the plane was located near Highway 411 in the Ashville area.
Authorities from Etowah County and the Civil Air Patrol had been conducting a search for the pilot who went missing on March 28 after taking off from the North Alabama Regional Airport in Gadsden.
The pilot, flying a private airplane, was traveling to New Orleans. Contact was made with air traffic control at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport but was lost shortly after takeoff.
A missing persons report was filed when efforts to contact the pilot failed. The CAP and the sheriff’s office in Etowah had been coordinating search and rescue resources.
The name of the pilot has not be released.