BUTLER (US): A plane carrying passengers planning to spend a sunny afternoon skydiving crashed Sunday in Missouri, killing all 12 people aboard, authorities said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that troopers were on the scene, assisting the Butler Police Department & Bates County Sheriff's Office. The crash occurred near the Butler Memorial Airport. Butler is roughly 65 miles south of Kansas City.
Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt Justin Ewing said the plane was taking people up to skydive. Emergency responders got a call that a plane was down and engulfed in fire around 11:30 am Sunday morning, he said.
Emergency responders were able to extinguish the fire shortly after the crash, Ewing said, calling the scene “brutal.”
“It landed in a field adjacent to the airport, but I think they're shutting down the roadway just as a precaution,” Ewing said.
The crash will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, he said.
The Pacific Aerospace 750XL that crashed is a single engine turboprop plane model that's popular for skydiving but has also proven useful for other uses, including cargo, aerial surveying and medical evacuation flights. The aircraft can carry as many as 17 skydivers 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 around 30 aircraft, all privately owned, including crop dusting companies and sky dive operators, Ewing said. The small town of Butler has a population of around 4,300 people, with roughly 17,000 residents in Bates County, Ewing said.
No information about the ages or hometowns of the crash victims was immediately available.
Sky diving companies operate in the region eight or nine months a year, with the season usually starting in late March or early April and lasting into October or November. Someone answering the phone at Skydive Kansas City declined to speak to a reporter from The Associated Press.