Twelve killed in Missouri skydiving plane crash

Twelve people were killed on Sunday when a small plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers on a skydiving outing crashed shortly after takeoff in Missouri, authorities said.

The plane went down near Butler Memorial Airport, about 105 kilometers south of Kansas City. Officials said it landed in a field adjacent to the airport and was engulfed in flames.

Sergeant Justin Ewing of the Missouri Highway Patrol said emergency responders received a call around 11:30 am that a plane was down and engulfed in flames. He said the aircraft was taking people up to skydive, The Associated Press reported.

Dennis Jacobs, acting airport manager and director of the Bates County Emergency Management Agency, said the private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City. He said it had just taken off and made a left turn before crashing, according to the AP report.

Jacobs said he believed the aircraft was losing power and that the pilot was trying to reach a highway for an emergency landing before the plane stalled, went down nose first and caught fire. His account has not been confirmed as the official cause of the crash.

Emergency crews put out the fire shortly after the crash. Jacobs said responders checked the area under the flight path and found no evidence that anyone had jumped from the aircraft before it went down.

The aircraft was identified as a Pacific Aerospace 750XL, a single-engine turboprop model often used for skydiving, cargo, aerial surveying and medical evacuation flights. The model can carry up to 17 skydivers and is capable of taking off and landing on short runways. Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane was manufactured in 2010.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were sent to the scene Sunday afternoon. Officials said the cause of the crash was not yet known.