Pilot missing after plane crashes in Florida panhandle

(CNN) - A six-seater plane crashed Sunday night near East Milton in the
Florida panhandle, but rescue workers could not locate the pilot despite a
thorough search of the swampy area, authorities said.

The Piper PA-46 left Anderson, Indiana, and was headed to Destin,
Florida. It went down in a swampy wooded area near Blackwater River in East
Milton, said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office.

Haines said the pilot told air traffic controllers the windshield of the
plane had imploded and that he was bleeding profusely. At the time the plane
was about 35 miles southwest of Birmingham, Alabama, and officials tried to
divert it to Pell City, Ala.

The plane, however, appeared to have been put on autopilot, and the pilot
was not responding, Haines said in a news release.

Military jets dispatched to intercept the plane fired flares and noticed
that the plane's door was open and the cockpit was dark, he said.

The plane crashed about 9:15 p.m. CT. And despite searching the area with
helicopters, planes, boats and dogs, rescue crews could not find the pilot.
Authorities have not said if anyone else was on the plane.