BUTLER, United States: A plane carrying skydivers crashed shortly after take-off near a small airport in the US state of Missouri on Sunday, killing all 12 people on board, state authorities said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the aircraft went down near Butler Memorial Airport in Butler, a town about 60 miles (97 kilometres) south of Kansas City.
“At this time reports indicate all occupants (12 total) have perished,” the agency said in a post on X.
A spokesperson for Bates County Emergency Management told local television station Fox4 that the victims included 11 skydivers and the pilot.
NEW: Eleven skydivers and a pilot are dead after their plane crashes in Butler, Missouri.
According to a spokesperson with Bates County Emergency Management, just before 11:30 a.m., a private plane leaving the Butler Memorial Airport turned around for an unknown reason before… pic.twitter.com/qlUxhfkfRN
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) June 14, 2026
Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Justin Ewing said the aircraft was transporting people for a skydiving trip when emergency services received reports at around 11:30 a.m. local time that a plane had crashed and caught fire.
Emergency crews extinguished the blaze shortly afterwards.
“It landed in a field adjacent to the airport,” Ewing said, describing the crash site as “brutal”.
Troopers were assisting the Butler Police Department and the Bates County Sheriff’s Office at the scene, according to a statement from the highway patrol.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were travelling to the crash site on Sunday to investigate the cause of the accident.
Dennis Jacobs, acting airport manager and director of the Bates County Emergency Management Agency, said the aircraft was operated by Skydive Kansas City.
According to Jacobs, the plane had “just taken off and made a left turn” before it crashed.
“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,” Jacobs said.
The aircraft was identified as a Pacific Aerospace 750XL, a single-engine turboprop aircraft widely used by skydiving operators. According to FAA records, the aircraft was manufactured in 2010.
The model can carry up to 17 skydivers and is also used for cargo transport, aerial surveying and medical evacuation missions.
