The crash and immediate response
A Pacific Aerospace P750 carrying 11 skydivers and a pilot crashed near Butler Memorial Airport in Missouri on Sunday, killing all 12 people aboard. Emergency responders received a call around 11:30 a.m. that the plane had gone down and caught fire. Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Justin Ewing said the aircraft was taking people up to skydive when it crashed in a field adjacent to the airport, roughly 60 miles south of Kansas City.
The plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City. Dennis Jacobs, the acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director, described what he observed in the final moments before impact. "It had just taken off and made a left turn before the crash," Jacobs said. "In my opinion I think it was losing power, and he was trying to make it over to the highway and land, and he stalled and went down nose first and caught fire."
Emergency responders extinguished the fire shortly after the crash. Jacobs called the scene "brutal." First responders checked the area beneath the flight path and found no evidence that anyone had attempted to jump from the plane before it went down.
The aircraft and operation
The single-engine turboprop plane was manufactured in 2010, according to FAA records. The Pacific Aerospace 750XL model is popular for skydiving operations but has also been used for cargo transport, 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.
Butler, a town of approximately 4,300 people, is home to a small airport serving around 30 privately owned aircraft, including crop dusting companies and sky dive operators. Skydiving companies operate in the region eight or nine months a year, with the season typically running from late March or early April through October or November.
Investigation underway
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the crash site to investigate. A final report on the cause of the crash is expected to be published in 12 to 24 months, according to the NTSB.
Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson told reporters that some of the passengers' family members witnessed the crash. The cause remains unknown at this stage of the investigation.
Safety concerns in skydiving operations
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, a former crash investigator for both the NTSB and FAA, pointed to a pattern of maintenance failures in skydiving operations. "There's been a whole history of skydiving accidents for inadequate maintenance and deficient safety culture," Guzzetti said.
According to aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, skydiving companies are governed by the same rules any private plane owner has to follow and not the more stringent rules that charter flight operators and airlines adhere to. The NTSB has previously raised concerns about weak oversight for skydiving operators. Following a 2019 crash in Hawaii that killed 11 people, the agency said the FAA's regulatory system was not strong enough to ensure the safety of skydiving flights.
Skydive Kansas City released a statement calling the crash "a devastating loss for everyone connected to Skydive Kansas City and for the wider skydiving community" and said the organization is working with local authorities and federal investigators.
