missouri plane crash today: Missouri plane crash reason: Why has Skydive Kansas City plane crashed near Butler Memorial Airport? Official reveals major details
Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Justin Ewing said the plane took people skydiving. He said emergency responders received a call around 11:30 a.m. Sunday reporting that a plane had crashed and was engulfed in flames.
“It landed in a field next to the airport, but I think they’re blocking the road as a precaution,” Ewing said.
A pile of blue and silver crushed metal lay on the grass near the airport, and next to it, several emergency vehicles lined the street.
Crews from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration headed to the crash scene Sunday afternoon to investigate, according to the Missouri State Patrol.
Dennis Jacobs, airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director, said the private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City.
“He had taken off and turned left before the crash,” Jacobs said. “I think it was losing power and trying to get to the highway and land, stopped and went nose first and caught fire.” Describing the scene as “brutal,” Jacobs said emergency responders were able to extinguish the fire shortly after the crash.
First responders checked the area below the flight path and found no one who might have tried to jump out before the crash, Jacobs said.
The crashed Pacific Aerospace 750XL is a single-engine turboprop aircraft model that is popular for skydiving but has also proven useful for other uses, including cargo, aerial research, and medical evacuation flights. The aircraft can carry 17 paratroopers and can take off and land on short runways. According to FAA records, the plane that crashed Saturday was manufactured in 2010.
The small airport serves about 30 aircraft, all privately owned, including crop dusting companies and skydiving operators, Ewing said.
Skydiving companies operate in the area for eight or nine months a year, with the season generally starting in late March or early April and lasting until October or November. A person who answered the phone at Skydive Kansas City declined to speak to a reporter from the Associated Press.
It is not yet known what factors may have contributed to or caused the crash, and those details will be part of the investigation by NTSB officials, Ewing said.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said poor maintenance has been a factor in previous skydiving plane crashes because those companies were not held to high standards under FAA rules. Guzzetti said skydiving companies are subject to the same rules that any private plane owner must follow, not the stricter rules that charter flight operators and airlines follow.
“There is a history of skydiving accidents due to inadequate maintenance and a missing safety culture,” said Guzzetti, who is an accident investigator for both the NTSB and the FAA.
