A pilot and 11 passengers preparing to skydive died when a plane crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday – devastating loved ones who watched the crash unfold and prompting federal authorities to investigate the cause of the tragedy.
The plane had just taken off from Butler Memorial Airport in western Missouri around 11:35 a.m. when it crashed, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
“It never reached an altitude of 100-200 feet. It was barely over the trees,” said Dennis Jacobs, Bates County emergency management director and the acting manager for Butler Memorial Airport, located some 60 miles south of Kansas City.
The plane made a sharp left turn and plummeted about 300 yards from the runway as some victims’ family members looked on, Jacobs said.
The plane crashed in a field and burst into flames, Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Justin Ewing told The Associated Press.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and the National Transportation Safety Board could take one to two years to release its final report.
Most of the NTSB investigative team is on site or on their way, though some are still in transit due to logistical problems tied to the World Cup in Kansas City and weather issues, NTSB Vice Chairman Michael Graham said during a news conference Monday. FAA officials arrived Sunday, Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said.
“We will see wherever the evidence takes us in this investigation,” Graham said.
‘Losing so many friends … is absolutely devastating’
Nine of the victims were experienced skydivers, while the other two were about to go on tandem jumps, officials said.
Dave Hershberger, an orchestra teacher with North Kansas City Schools, was among the victims who died in Sunday’s crash, the school district said in a statement Monday.
He was “not only a passionate educator and talented musician, but one of the kindest humans,” the Antioch Middle School and Oak Park High School principals said.
Jen Sharp, who served as the US Parachute Association director of technology and spent nine years on its skydiving team, also died on Sunday, the association said.
“Her unwavering commitment to advancing the sport, supporting our membership, and strengthening the organization was second to none,” the US Parachute Association wrote in a statement on Monday.
Mike Shanahan, who was preparing to make his 23rd tandem jump, was one of the victims in Sunday’s crash, according to a GoFundMe page created by his son’s childhood friend, Brandon Carney.
“I’ve watch this man give what he didn’t have to help others and I’ve watched him love harder than most,” Carney wrote. “I have no other words than please keep these children and this family in your prayers because this man will truly be missed.”
Travis Phippen, who was friends with several of the victims, said the skydiving community is “incredibly close knit.”
“Losing so many friends and respected members of the community at once is absolutely devastating,” he said.
Jacobs, a pilot familiar with the Butler Memorial community, told CNN he can’t bear to look up who was on the flight.
“I have not seen the manifest list of who was on board … because I did not want to know.”
The crash is the deadliest in the history of Butler Memorial Airport, which had a grass runway before it was paved in the 1970s, Jacobs said.
It’s also the deadliest plane crash in Missouri since 2004, Jacobs said.
Butler Memorial Airport is a small, rural airport with no scheduled commercial flights, Ewing said. Skydive KC is one of the few companies listed in pilot’s guides as providing service at the airport.
The airport has one runway that stretches nearly 4,000 feet, with no control tower. Pilots communicate using a common frequency to announce their intentions.
Wreckage lies in a field next to Butler Memorial Airport after a plane carrying skydivers crashed in Butler, Missouri, on Sunday. ABC Affiliate KMBC/Reuters
The cause of the crash is a mystery
Though witnesses reported seeing the plane make a sharp left turn, it’s not clear whether the pilot intentionally made the maneuver. If a plane loses power and stalls, one wing can rise higher than the other, creating what looks like a sharp turn, said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation inspector general.
Investigators don’t know whether the plane had a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder, but those types of aircraft aren’t required to carry those devices, and investigators don’t expect the plane had those boxes on board, Graham said.
A single-engine turboprop plane operated by Skydive Kansas City crashed; the company has been in business since 1998 and runs sister skydiving operations in Indianapolis and Wisconsin.
Skydive KC is one of the few companies listed in pilot’s guides as providing service at the airport.
“This is a devastating loss for everyone connected to Skydive Kansas City and for the wider skydiving community,” the company said in a statement to CNN affiliate KCTV.
“At this time, the focus of the management and ownership team is to assist investigators and to support the staff and the broader skydiving community. The entire team is in shock, and the community is close-knit.”
CNN reached out to Skydive Kansas City, which declined to comment further.
FAA records show the aircraft was registered to SkyHi Aero, a company based in Tennessee. CNN has sought comment from SkyHi Aero.
Jacobs said he believed the plane was losing power, telling the AP he believes the pilot “was trying to make it over to the highway and land, and he stalled and went down nose first and caught fire.”
David Soucie, a CNN aviation safety analyst, echoed Jacobs’ opinion but added it’s too early to tell what caused the potential drop in power.
The engine type in the plane is known to be reliable, Soucie said, noting the issue could have stemmed from water in the fuel or a fuel filter problem rather than maintenance issues or pilot experience.
“This, for all intents and purposes, appears to be an accident,” Anderson said.
FAA records show the Pacific Aerospace 750XL plane was manufactured in 2010. It’s a popular model for skydiving but is also used for cargo, aerial surveying and medical evacuation flights, according to the AP. It can carry as many as 17 skydivers and can take off and land on short runways.
Jacobs and Schiavo said a plane made in 2010 is still considered relatively new.
Jacobs noted the plane must undergo “extremely detailed” inspections after every 100 hours of flight time.
Graham said there is no confirmation yet that the plane was experiencing any engine issues.
The plane had completed two short flights Sunday morning, including one at 9:20 and 10:32 a.m., before the crash, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.
FAA previously criticized over skydiving plane regulations
In the past decade, eight fatal aircraft crashes related to skydiving have resulted in 25 deaths, according to the US Parachute Association.
Near the same airport in May 2024, a pilot and six passengers on a skydiving flight jumped from a small plane right before it crashed. No one was killed in that incident.
Regulators apply the same rules to aircraft used for skydiving as they do to private pilots, rules that are much less strict than those covering most large commercial scheduled passenger aircraft.
The NTSB has previously raised concerns about weak oversight of skydiving operators in response to prior crashes.
During a news conference in 2019 addressing a skydiving plane crash that killed 11 people in Hawaii, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy told reporters the FAA has ignored many suggestions for changing safety regulations of parachute plane operators.
Before Sunday’s incident, the Hawaii crash was the deadliest skydiving plane crash since 1995.
“There is an inherent risk to parachuting and there are measures you take to mitigate that risk,” Homendy said at the time. “But paying passengers should be able to count on an airworthy plane, an adequately trained pilot, a safe operator and adequate federal oversight of those operations.”
Leave a Reply