Twelve people on board a small airplane died after it crashed in Missouri Sunday, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The plane crashed near Butler Memorial Airport, about 65 miles south of Kansas City.
The plane was carrying 11 skydivers and a pilot, according to FOX4 Kansas City.
Emergency responders got a call that the plane had crashed and was on fire around 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol officials. While first responders were able to extinguish the fire quickly, they described the scene as “brutal” at a press conference.
“[The plane] had just taken off and made a left turn,” Dennis Jacobs, Bates County Emergency Management Agency director and acting airport manager, told The Associated Press. “In my opinion, I think it was losing power, and he was trying to make it over to the highway and land, and he stalled and went down nose first and caught fire.”
The plane was a 16-year-old Pacific Aerospace 750XL — a single-engine turboprop plane commonly used for skydiving, cargo and medical evacuation flights — operated by Skydive Kansas City, according to the AP. It can carry up to 17 passengers.
First responders searched the flight path to attempt to locate anyone who may have jumped from the plane before it crashed, but did not find anyone, Jacobs told the AP.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the incident.
This is a developing story.