Staff Report
Last week, first responders were searching an area between Sopchoppy and Smith Creek after the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Tyndall Air Force Base that a signal had been picked up indicating a plane had crashed in the area.
The report turned out to be unsubtantiated.
Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Jeff Yarbrough said the call came in around 3:45 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29 about the plane crash. Deputies, firefighters, state troopers and wildlife officers searched the area but could find no downed plane in the area.
Yarbrough said the sheriff’s office contacted the Federal Aviation Administration in Tallahassee about the report and were told FAA had seen no plane go down in the area.
There was a smoke plume from a prescribed burn in the area that was investigated, but no airplane.
After an hour on scene, deputies turned the matter over to Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers and the Florida Highway Patrol.
