The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said the Cessna 172 was stolen from the ATP Flight School at Addison Airport, about 15 miles north of Dallas.

The pilot, named as Logan Timothy James, 23, of Stokesdale, North Carolina, flew the plane more than 80 miles northeast toward Paris, Texas, before crashing it near the state's border with Oklahoma.

Addison Airport said the plane departed at 6:53pm on Wednesday, according to Sky News' sister site NBC.

It crashed about 8:26pm local time in a field nine miles northeast of Telephone, Texas. Mr James was the only person on board, the DPS said.

It was not immediately clear whether or not Mr James radioed for help or declared an emergency before he crashed.

An air traffic control recording from earlier in the flight picked up a conversation about his plans.

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"About right now you'll probably realise that I'm not going to listen to y'all's instructions and I'm just heading to east Texas," he said, according to air traffic control recordings.

"I'm going to pull the comm 1 circuit breaker and the comm 2 circuit breaker right here soon, as soon as I unkey the mic."

The National Transportation Safety Board, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration, is leading the investigation, the DPS said.