12 killed in Missouri skydiving plane crash near Butler

All 12 people aboard a skydiving plane were killed after the aircraft went down moments after takeoff from Butler Memorial Airport in Butler, Missouri. The plane, carrying 11 skydivers and one pilot, crashed in a field on airport property around 11:30 a.m. Sunday and erupted in flames. Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said some family members witnessed the crash, turning a local emergency into a scene of immediate and deep personal loss.

Authorities described the wreck as a mass-casualty event. Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers responded to assist the Butler Police Department and the Bates County Sheriff’s Office as crews secured the airport grounds and began the grim work of accounting for everyone aboard. Officials said all 12 people were presumed dead or confirmed dead at the scene.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board opened investigations into the crash. Those inquiries will focus on the aircraft, its operator, the plane’s maintenance history, and the circumstances that allowed a skydiving flight to end in a fireball barely after liftoff. For now, authorities have identified only the basic outline of the flight: a skydiving outing from a rural airport that serves that kind of traffic.

Butler, a city of about 4,220 residents in the 2020 Census, sits roughly 60 to 65 miles south of Kansas City. Butler Memorial Airport is described by local officials as a rural field used for skydiving operations rather than commercial airline service, a detail that now places a small aviation hub under intense scrutiny after one of the deadliest incidents of its kind in Missouri in recent years.

The crash also revived memories of a skydiving accident near the same airport in May 2024, when a parachute deployed over a small plane’s tail, damaged the aircraft and sent it out of control. No one was injured in that earlier incident, but it underscored that the airport had already seen a close call involving the same kind of operation. Sunday’s disaster was far more severe, killing everyone on board and leaving investigators to determine whether the tragedy reflected a one-off failure or deeper risks in recreational aviation.