A possible plane crash was reported to the 911 Dispatch Center in Warren County on Dec. 28, causing emergency responders to immediately deploy to the area north of the intersection of Highway A/B and Interstate 70, according to the Warrenton Fire Protection District.

But upon arriving in the area, searchers looking for any signs of impact and scanning the area using aerial drones found no evidence of a crash, said Warrenton Fire Chief Anthony Hayeslip.

“It was unfounded,” Hayeslip said. “A lady had called it in because she saw a trail of what looked like black smoke, and apparently her son was on the highway just west of her location ... and reported to her that he saw a plane fully engulfed and going down.”

After responders found no evidence to substantiate that report, Hayeslip said the information was passed on to agencies in Montgomery County so that they could investigate further west. They didn’t turn up any signs of a crash, either.

Warren County dispatchers also contacted the regional office of the Federal Aviation Administration for further investigation.

“The FAA showed no aircraft in that area at the time it was called in,” said Hayeslip, explaining that FAA investigators checked with area airports that would have been monitoring air traffic. “They backed up the time frame on their systems to see if there was any aircraft reported in this area, and there wasn’t. So the likelihood of it actually being an aircraft (crash) is nil.

“I don’t know what (the callers) saw or didn’t see, but we found no aircraft,” Hayeslip concluded.