A plane carrying 11 skydivers and a pilot crashed in the US state of Missouri on Sunday, killing all 12 people on board, according to official reports.
The aircraft, a Pacific Aerospace P750 leased by a skydiving company, took off from Butler Memorial Airport around 11:20 local time, reports BBC.
A spokesperson for Bates County Emergency Management stated that the plane failed to gain altitude shortly after take-off, made a sharp left turn, and crashed about 200 yards away from the airport.
Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson, speaking at an afternoon news conference, confirmed there were no survivors and said authorities are treating the incident as a “mass casualty”. He noted that the aircraft was a local plane rather than a commercial airliner.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), air traffic services were not being provided at the time of the crash. An FAA spokesperson explained that the aircraft was not required to be in communication with controllers due to the specific type of airspace in which it was operating.
First responders searched the vicinity to determine if any skydivers had successfully jumped from the plane prior to the impact, but no survivors were located.
Sheriff Anderson also revealed that some family members of the deceased were present at the airport and witnessed the accident.
Authorities have not yet released the identities of the victims.
The city of Butler is located approximately 50 miles south of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has assumed the lead role in the investigation into the cause of the crash, with support from the FAA.
