A devastating small plane crash outside Butler, Missouri, has claimed the lives of all 12 people on board on Sunday, leaving the regional skydiving community reeling and triggering a full federal investigation into the tragedy.
Local emergency responders first declared the incident a mass casualty event shortly after the crash, which unfolded around 11:20 a.m. local time near the Butler-area airport. The aircraft, identified by the Federal Aviation Administration as a Pacific Aerospace P750, was operating as a skydiving flight carrying 11 skydivers and one pilot. According to initial accounts, the plane spun out of control shortly after departing the airport and plummeted to the ground. No identities of the deceased have been released to the public as of the latest updates, next-of-kin notifications remain ongoing.
Witness accounts paint a grim picture of the plane’s final moments. Bailey Reed, who saw the crash unfold, told CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner, that the aircraft was completely perpendicular to the ground and moving at high speed when it impacted. Reed added that the plane dropped to such a low altitude before crashing that none of the skydivers on board had any chance to exit and deploy their parachutes, noting there was no possible scenario for a survivor after such a rapid descent.
For the local skydiving community, the loss hits especially close to home. Charles Crinklaw, a frequent skydiver based in Kansas City, roughly 50 miles from the crash site, told a local NBC affiliate that he personally knew every person on the flight. “Everybody on that plane was somebody that I know. I know four of them very, very well. They jumped with me [at Falcon Skydiving] on a regular basis,” Crinklaw said.
Skydive Kansas City, the regional operator running the skydiving outing, released a statement calling the incident an unfathomable “devastating loss” for the entire global skydiving community. “Our deepest sympathies are with the families, friends, and loved ones of all who were lost,” the company said, adding that it is cooperating fully with federal investigators to support their probe.
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that its investigative team departed for the remote crash site early Monday morning to begin sifting through wreckage and reconstruct the sequence of events that led to the crash. The FAA noted that the plane was not required to use air traffic control communication services at the time of the crash, due to the classification of the airspace it was operating in, so no active communications were being tracked by controllers.
Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson, whose office was among the first emergency agencies to respond to the scene, confirmed his department activated mass casualty protocols immediately after receiving reports of the crash, with support from local and state first responders as well as federal investigators.