A plane carrying skydivers crashed in a field and caught fire shortly after takeoff in Butler, Missouri, on Sunday, killing all 12 people aboard, authorities said.
The aircraft, a Pacific Aerospace P750 operated by Skydive Kansas City, went down around 11:30 a.m. near Butler Memorial Airport, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. A pilot and 11 passengers were killed. Emergency responders received a call that a plane was down and engulfed in fire and extinguished the blaze shortly after the crash.
Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said the crash happened soon after takeoff and that some of the occupants' family members witnessed it. He described the event as an apparent accident and said the public was not in danger. A highway patrol sergeant said the cause was not yet known and would be examined by federal investigators.
The Federal Aviation Administration said 12 people were aboard and that air traffic services were not being provided at the time. Local media reports said the plane turned back for an unknown reason after taking off before crashing near a highway, prompting authorities to close the road. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause. Butler, a town of about 4,300 people, is roughly 65 miles south of Kansas City.
Authorities said the aircraft, manufactured in 2010, is used to carry skydivers and can take off from short runways. Skydiving operations run in the region for much of the year, typically from early spring into the fall.
This is a developing story.
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