Twelve dead in Missouri skydiving crash as NTSB takes the lead

A skydiving flight that crashed moments after takeoff in rural western Missouri on Sunday has killed all twelve people aboard, making it one of the deadliest US skydiving incidents in decades and handing federal investigators a fresh aviation disaster to unpick.

The single-engine Pacific Aerospace 750XL went down at around 11:30 a.m. near Butler Memorial Airport, roughly 60 miles south of Kansas City, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Eleven skydivers and the pilot were on board. There were no survivors. The turboprop, operated by Skydive Kansas City, had completed two short flights earlier that morning before the fatal departure, flight-tracking data showed.

Officials offered an early, grim sketch of the aircraft's final seconds. The acting airport manager said the plane failed to gain altitude after takeoff and made a sharp left turn before crashing into a field on airport property, where it caught fire. Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said the crash appeared to be an accident but cautioned that the cause remains unknown, adding that some victims' family members had witnessed the wreck.

The National Transportation Safety Board, whose investigators arrived Monday, will lead the inquiry, with the Federal Aviation Administration assisting. The FAA confirmed no air traffic services were being provided at the time of the crash, a routine feature of small uncontrolled airfields. The agency said the 2010-built aircraft can carry as many as 17 jumpers.

The investigation is expected to run several days, with attention likely to centre on engine performance, weight and loading, and that abrupt turn. For the tight-knit skydiving community, the human toll landed first. One Kansas City jumper said most of the dead were experienced, having each logged hundreds of jumps. Victims' names were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.