Pilot of plane missing over Gulf of Mexico possibly hypoxic

The pilot of a small plane that failed to land at its Central Texas destination and was later tracked by fighter jets flying over the Gulf of Mexico appeared unresponsive and may have been suffering from a lack of oxygen, authorities said Thursday. The pilot of the Cirrus SR-22 took off from Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City Wednesday afternoon after filing a flight plan to land in Georgetown, Texas, about 25 miles north of Austin.

Coast Guard searching for plane believed to have crashed into Gulf of Mexico

North American Aerospace Defense Command had earlier launched fighter aircraft based in Texas and Louisiana to make visual contact with the single-engine plane that had failed to land in Texas after having taken off from Oklahoma City earlier in the day. "A Cirrus S22T left Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City this afternoon and the pilot filed a flight plan to Georgetown, Texas" the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.