Butler, Missouri– A plane carrying passengers who intended to spend the sunny afternoon skydiving crashed Sunday in Missouri, killing all 12 people on board, authorities said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that troopers were at the scene to assist the Butler Police Department. and the Bates County Sheriff’s Office. The accident occurred near Butler Memorial Airport. The small town of Butler has a population of about 4,300 and is located about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Kansas City.
Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Justin Ewing said the plane was transporting people to skydive. He said emergency responders received a call that a plane had crashed and caught fire around 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
Ewing said emergency responders were able to extinguish the fire shortly after the accident, and described the scene as “brutal.”
“The plane landed in a field adjacent to the airport, but I think they closed the road as a precaution,” Ewing said.
Teams from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were on their way to the crash site Sunday afternoon to investigate, according to the Missouri State Patrol.
The private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City, said Dennis Jacobs, acting airport director and director of the Bates County Emergency Management Agency.
“It just took off and turned left” before the accident, Jacobs said. “In my opinion, I think he was losing power, and he was trying to get to the highway and land, but he stopped and fell head-first and caught fire.”
First responders checked the area below the flight path and found no one who may have tried to jump before the crash, Jacobs said.
The Pacific Aerospace 750XL that crashed is a single-engine turboprop model that is popular for skydiving but has also proven useful for other uses, including cargo, aerial surveying and medical evacuation flights. The plane can carry up to 17 skydivers and is capable of taking off and landing on short runways. The plane that crashed Saturday was manufactured in 2010, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
The small airport serves about 30 aircraft, all privately owned, including crop dusting companies and skydiving operators, Ewing said.
Skydiving companies operate in the area for eight or nine months of the year, and the season usually begins in late March or early April and lasts until October or November. A person answering the phone at Skydive Kansas City declined to speak to an Associated Press reporter.
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