A tragic plane crash in Missouri has killed 11 skydivers and a pilot. BBC reported this news in a report. According to the report, the country’s government officials have confirmed this information.
A spokesman for Bates County Emergency Management said the plane took off at 11:20 a.m. local time Sunday. A skydiving company had chartered the plane.
The spokesman told the BBC that the plane failed to climb to the required altitude after take-off. It then made a sudden left turn and crashed just 200 yards from Butler Memorial Airport. All 12 people on board were killed.
“We are treating this as a major loss of life,” Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.
The plane that crashed was not a commercial airline, the sheriff said. “It was a local plane. It took off from our local airport,” he said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a Pacific Aerospace P750 model. The accident took place while taking off from the airport.
The FAA said no air traffic service had begun for the aircraft at that time. A spokesman explained that the type of airspace the plane was flying did not require regular communication with controllers.
Local media reported that rescue workers were searching the area to see if any skydivers had jumped from the plane before the crash.
The sheriff said some relatives of the victims witnessed the tragic accident with their own eyes. Authorities have not yet released the names of the casualties.
Butler, Missouri is about 50 miles south of Kansas City. The FAA says the National Transportation Safety Board is in charge of investigating the crash.