According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, troopers were assisting law enforcement at the crash scene near Butler Memorial Airport, located south of Kansas City.
Aircraft carrying a pilot and 11 passengers who intended to go skydiving on a sunny Sunday afternoon crashed in Missouri, resulting in no survivors, officials reported.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol announced in a statement that troopers were on site at the crash location, providing support to the Butler Police Department and the Bates County Sheriff’s Office. The incident occurred near Butler Memorial Airport. The small community of Butler has approximately 4,300 residents and is situated about 105km (65 miles) south of Kansas City.
Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Justin Ewing stated that the aircraft was transporting individuals for a skydiving excursion. Emergency crews received a report that a plane had gone down and was on fire at roughly 11:30am local time on Sunday, he noted.
“It came down in a field next to the airport, but I believe they’re closing off the road as a safety measure,” Ewing said.
A pile of twisted blue and silver wreckage was visible in the grass near the airport, with a long line of emergency vehicles parked on the adjacent road.
Teams from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were heading to the crash site on Sunday afternoon to conduct an investigation, the Missouri State Patrol confirmed.