12 presumed dead after skydiving plane crashes near Butler, Missouri

A skydiving plane carrying 11 jumpers and one pilot went down near Butler Memorial Airport on Sunday, leaving all 12 people on board presumed dead. Missouri State Highway Patrol said emergency responders got the call around 11:30 a.m., after the aircraft had turned back for reasons that were not immediately clear and crashed near Business 49 Highway.

The flight’s mission was not a routine passenger hop. Sgt. Justin Ewing said the plane was taking people up to skydive, a familiar operation at airports that support jump activity but one that carries a different set of risks than commercial travel. Instead of carrying seated passengers to a destination, the aircraft was climbing quickly to altitude, then appeared to reverse course shortly after takeoff before it went down near the airport in Bates County.

Authorities said the crash scene was close enough to Butler Memorial Airport that roadway closures near the airport were treated as a precaution. Troopers were assisting the Butler Police Department and the Bates County Sheriff’s Office as crews worked the scene in the small western Missouri town, which has about 4,300 residents and sits roughly 65 miles south of Kansas City.

For investigators, the first questions are straightforward and urgent: why the plane turned around, what condition it was in before departure, and what happened in the minutes between takeoff and impact. Skydiving flights depend on repeated climbs, quick turnarounds and a tight sequence of pilot and jumper decisions, which can make the operational margin different from a typical passenger flight. That difference does not itself explain a crash, but it does shape the questions authorities will ask first.

The Butler area has seen a similar skydiving emergency before. In 2024, a separate skydiving-plane incident near Butler ended differently, with six skydivers and a pilot parachuting to safety before the aircraft was destroyed. That earlier episode underscored how much can hinge on timing, altitude and the pilot’s ability to keep control long enough for everyone aboard to get clear.