12 dead after plane on skydiving outing crashes in Missouri, authorities say

A plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers planning to spend a sunny afternoon skydiving crashed on Sunday in Missouri, killing all aboard, authorities said.

Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that troopers were at the crash site, helping the Butler Police Department & Bates County Sheriff’s Office. The crash happened near Butler Memorial Airport. The small town of Butler has a population of around 4,300 people and is roughly 105km (65 miles) south of Kansas City.

Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Justin Ewing said the plane was taking people up to skydive. Emergency responders got a call that a plane was down and engulfed in flames at around 11.30am local time on Sunday, he said.

“It landed in a field adjacent to the airport but I think they’re shutting down the roadway just as a precaution,” Ewing said.

A heap of blue and silver mangled metal lay in the grass near the airport with a massive queue of emergency vehicles on the street beside it.

Teams from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were en route to the crash site on Sunday afternoon to investigate, according to Missouri State Patrol.