The pilot of the Cirrus SR22 single-engine airplane who died in a crash in northern Jackson Parish on October 21st has been identified as Rodney Cooper of Huntsville, TX.

The executive director for LaSalle Corrections, which owns and operates the Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Jonesboro, along with several other prisons in north Louisiana, was pronounced dead at the scene after the plane fell from the sky near State Hwy 146 and Old Snipes Road, a few miles south of the Ruston Regional Airport.

According to Jackson Parish Sheriff Andy Brown, air traffic controllers in Monroe lost contact with the plane as it was approaching the Ruston airport, and the pilot reported having engine trouble. 

A flight path graph showed the plane heading northward through Jackson Parish toward the Ruston airport before looping back southward, veering to the right, and making another small loop before going down in a heavily wooded area.