Skydivers killed in Missouri plane crash found thrills and peace through jumping

A skydiving instructor with more than 6,800 jumps. He’s been a stickler for safety ever since he fell in love with the sport, which helped him sober up. A software engineer on the verge of becoming a certified skydiving coach. Grandfather remembering his sister who died of cancer.

Family and friends of 11 jumpers and pilots lost their lives the plane crashed Shortly after setting out for Missouri, they said they loved their hobbies; whether it’s finding personal peace or sharing a once-in-a-lifetime experience with others. They remembered that experienced paratroopers As people who have regular jobs to pay the bills, but free fall brings both the excitement and serenity they crave.

Blake Thacker, 25, has been jumping for seven years since his first skydive on his 18th birthday. His mother, Sherry, said he was ready to get his skydiving coach certification over the weekend.

“Skydiving had given him the confidence to do other things in his life, to be successful and achieve things that he perhaps didn’t think he was good enough to do,” he said.

Thacker was an aerospace software engineer, and his mother saw the same methodical safety focus in his hobby.

“He said, ‘Mom, the danger in skydiving is not actually the diving, it’s the plane,’” she recalled.

The plane crashed shortly after takeoff

The plane had barely cleared the ground on Sunday — only about 100 feet in the air — when it made a sudden left turn before crashing on a sunny day. Witnesses said it appeared to be losing power.

Skydive Kansas City operated a single-engine turboprop Pacific Aerospace 750XL built in 2010 at an airport in the small town of Butler, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Kansas City.

The plane first arrived in Butler on June 5, according to data from FlightRadar24.com. Pictures of the plane posted on social media showed it still had advertisements for Chattanooga Skydiving Co. Flight history showed the plane had previously flown for weeks in Tennessee and Wisconsin.

A woman who answered the phone at Chattanooga Skydiving Co. hung up after a reporter identified herself Tuesday.

National Transportation Safety Board is investigating all factors Information leading up to the accident, including how much experience the pilot had with this model aircraft and any mechanical or structural problems with the aircraft.

According to the Bates County Coroner’s Office, the 12 people killed were identified as Thacker, Kurt John Roy, Michael Shanahan, David Hershberger, Sai Karthik Varma Datla, Matthew Swope, Dustin McKinney, Jen Sharp, Marcus Miller, Nicholas Nash, William Fischer and Dane Cordes.

Skydiving helped one jumper stay sober

McKinney’s wife said her husband was a stickler for safety when he jumped seven years ago after his love of skydiving led to his sobriety.

“It seems like skydiving was the only way to beat Dustin because it was such a freak accident,” Kathryn Nold said. “It was such a scary thing. It’s still so surreal.”

McKinney, 44, worked at a furniture store and played drums in bands in the Kansas City area. The father of two was also working a part-time paid job as a cameraman for Skydive Kansas City.

“He could immediately make people feel seen and warm and want to be around him, and I feel extremely lucky that we were the center of his world and were able to experience the love from him that he effortlessly gave everyone,” Nold said of his high school sweetheart.

He honored his sister by jumping

Shanahan began skydiving just before his older sister, Nikki, died of breast cancer in 2016, his mother said Tuesday.

“He wanted to live his life and make it worth having fun, having a good time, doing something he enjoyed, and skydiving was something he always wanted to do without us knowing,” Gloria Shanahan told the Associated Press.

Shanahan honored his sister by skydiving on her birthday, Mother’s Day and the anniversary of her death. Later he visited his grave.

Shanahan, 54, jumped just for fun on Saturday. Her mother said she planned to jump on Sunday as a backup in case the weather was bad, but decided to jump two days anyway.

“We don’t regret doing this. He had the chance to live the life he wanted,” he said.

Shanahan’s skydiving instructor was Hershberger, who was on the plane with him Sunday. The two had another bond. Hershberger taught violin to Shanahan’s two grandchildren.

Hershberger, 54, also taught orchestra and played trumpet in the Kansas City Wind Symphony. He spent his summers at Skydive Kansas City, often harnessing inexperienced jumpers excited and nervous about crossing something off their bucket lists.

Skydiving to learn more about yourself

Sharp, 55, made his first jump in 1989 when he was 18 years old. Nearly 6,800 jumps later, he became a legendary instructor at the sport’s highest levels and coach of Thacker certification.

Sharp wrote on her blog about how she jumped into Denver’s Coors Field basketball court dressed as the queen of England and loved going around with people skydiving for the first time and seeing them test their resolve, grow personally, and just feel alive.

His friend Greg Upper described Sharp as a philosopher in a statement to the Associated Press and said, “Taking lessons from Jen Sharp was like taking piano lessons from Beethoven.” “That’s how big of a deal it was.”

Swope, 39, worked in IT but was in the skies every weekend looking for some fun, especially something he could share with others, said his best friend, Justin Williams.

“He loved it. He takes people on once-in-a-lifetime adventures multiple times a day, every weekend,” Williams said.

Williams said he was afraid to go skydiving again after Swope’s death, but he also knew he had to because his friend knew that to truly live was to take risks.

“It’s scary to be inside the door, but the moment you let it go, the door falls apart, causing a state of presence that you can’t find anywhere else,” Williams said of the free fall. “You don’t worry about the future. You don’t worry about the past. You’re just in the present moment, and that’s the most peaceful experience.”

The skydiving industry says it has a strong safety record. The United States Parachute Association said nearly 3.5 million jumps were completed last year and 16 civilians died, mostly due to human error.

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Associated Press reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.