A plane crash in Missouri Sunday morning killed the pilot and 11 passengers on a skydiving outing.
The crash, which is being treated as a “mass casualty,” according to Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson, occurred in a field shortly after the plane took off from Butler Memorial Airport at 11:30 a.m. Flames engulfed the aircraft and all aboard were killed.
The plane, identified as a single engine turboprop, was only in the air about 100 feet at the time of the crash, so those aboard would not have been able to use their parachutes.
Dennis Jacobs, acting airport manager and director of Bates County Emergency Management, said the incident is the deadliest crash in the history of the airport.
“It’s such a beautiful day that such a tragic thing happened,” Jacobs said. “It’s mind numbing.”
Family members and several agencies were on-site following the crash
Several local agencies responded to the scene, including officials from the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Butler Police Department, the Bates County Sheriff’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Officials worked Sunday afternoon to identify victims and notify their next of kin. Some of the occupants’ family members witnessed the crash, Anderson said. Volunteers and clergy members tended to the family members on-site.
“Our hearts go out to them,” Anderson said, speaking of the family members of victims. “There’s nothing we really can say to make it better. We just pray for them and their loved ones and their friends and their family and hope that they can recover to some sense of normalcy.”
The cause of the crash will remain unknown for at least a year
Factors contributing to the crash are unknown. Authorities do not suspect foul play. The sheriff said the crash “appears to be an accident” and the public is safe.
“The plane took off and then at that point it went down,” Anderson said in a press briefing. “We’re not sure exactly anything beyond that.”
The exact cause of the crash will not be clear for at least a year until the NTSB publishes its final report.
Brad Burr, the president of a parachute club at Kansas State University, told The New York Times that he had previously flown or jumped with some of the victims.
“Unfortunately in this sport, we suffer loss,” Burr said. “This is one of those that we have to rebuild and grow from.”