Updated ,first published
Butler, Missouri: A plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers who were planning to spend a sunny afternoon skydiving crashed in Missouri, killing everyone on board, authorities said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said troopers were at the scene of the crash, assisting the Butler Police Department and the Bates County Sheriff’s Office.
The accident occurred near Butler Memorial Airport on Sunday morning (US time). The small town of Butler has a population of about 4,300 people and is about 105 miles south of Kansas City.
Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Justin Ewing said the plane was taking people skydiving. Emergency services received a call that a plane had gone down and was engulfed in flames about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, he said.
“It landed in a field adjacent to the airport, but I think they’re closing the road just as a precaution,” Ewing said.
A mound of mangled blue and silver metal lay on the grass near the airport with a huge line of emergency vehicles on the street next to it.
Teams from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were headed 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 had just taken off and turned left” before the crash, Jacobs said. “In my opinion, I think it was losing power and was trying to get onto the road and land, it stalled, landed nose first and caught fire.”
Emergency services were able to put out the fire shortly after the crash, Jacobs said, calling the scene “brutal.”
First responders checked the area below the flight path and did not find anyone who may have attempted to jump before the crash, Jacobs said.
The Pacific Aerospace 750XL that crashed is a single-engine turboprop aircraft model that is popular for skydiving but has also proven useful for other uses, including cargo flights, aerial reconnaissance and medical evacuation.
The plane can carry up to 17 paratroopers and is capable of taking off and landing on short runways. The plane that crashed Saturday was manufactured in 2010, according to FAA 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 region eight or nine months a year, and the season usually begins in late March or early April and lasts until October or November. Someone who answered the phone at Skydive Kansas City declined to speak to an Associated Press reporter.
It is not yet known what factors may have contributed to or caused the crash, Ewing said, and those details will be part of the investigation by NTSB officials.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said poor maintenance has been a factor in several previous skydiving plane accidents because these companies are not held to a high standard under FAA rules.
Guzzetti said skydiving companies are governed by the same rules that any private plane owner must follow and not the stricter rules that charter operators and airlines adhere to.
“There has been a history of skydiving accidents due to inadequate maintenance and poor safety culture,” said Guzzetti, who used to be an accident investigator for both the NTSB and the FAA.
AP
