Plane crashes on Ole Miss golf course

Published 4:12 pm Saturday, July 6, 2019

A Civil Air Patrol plane crashed on the Ole Miss Golf Course Saturday afternoon.

The single-engine plane was performing ‘touch and go’ takeoffs at the nearby Ole Miss airport when it crashed around 3:15 p.m. near the course’s 17th tee box. The only person onboard was a female pilot who suffered serious burns in the crash. She was airlifted to a Memphis-area trauma center and her condition is unknown, per a statement released by the university communications office.

Not long after the plane hit the ground, officers from Oxford Police Department, the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department and the University Police Department responded to the scene. No one on the golf course was injured in the crash.

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“We were on (hole) 9… It looked like it was landing and then aborted the landing and we saw it struggle to come back up,” bystander Brian Scott Rippee said. “Then, when we were walking off the green it just fell straight down into the trees.”

A report by the Starkville Daily News on Saturday night identified the pilot as Lake Little. Little, 18, is an incoming freshman at the University of Southern Mississippi. Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill confirmed Lake was the pilot in the Daily News’ report. Little is also the daughter of Starkville’s Ward 3 Alderman David Little. She was a 2019 graduate of Starkville Academy.

Multiple news outlets, including the Daily News, reported Little succumbed to her injuries sustained in the plane crash and passed away Saturday night. Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill confirmed Little’s passing to the EAGLE.

“The City of Oxford mourns alongside those of you in Starkville,” Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill wrote in a tweet. “Prayers for peace and comfort for the family of Lake Little and for all of those who loved her. May God wrap His loving arms around you.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration have been contacted and will handle the investigation at the crash scene.

This is a developing story. More information will be published as it becomes available.