Benton man dies in plane crash

PARSONS, Tenn. -- A Benton, Missouri, man died Wednesday in West Tennessee when the crop-dusting plane he was piloting went down.

Family confirmed the man piloting the plane was Hollis Malone, 29, of Benton.

Decatur County Emergency Management director Kevin Cagle said the plane crashed about 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Bible Hill community in the northern part of the county, about five miles north of Parsons.

Cagle said the person killed was piloting the plane and was the only person aboard.

The Jackson Sun newspaper in Jackson, Tennessee, reported that the pilot was contracted by the Henderson-Chester Farmers Co-op in Lexington, Tennessee, as a crop-duster, officials from the co-op said. Henderson-Chester Farmers Co-op officials said the company hires "two or three" companies it uses to spray crops.

A nearby resident, Naomi Allen, said she saw the plane flying "quite low," and when it suddenly crashed, "it shook my house."

Cagle said the cause of the crash hasn't been determined, and the Federal Aviation Administration dispatched someone to investigate.