Federal investigators on Monday were headed to a small Missouri airport where a skydiving trip turned deadly over the weekend. All 12 people aboard, including the pilot, were killed when the aircraft took off from Butler Memorial Airport just before 11:30am Sunday, failed to climb, then banked sharply and slammed into the ground at a steep angle, reports the Washington Post. A preliminary report is due in 30 days, but it could take a year or more to determine the cause of the crash, notes CNN.
"For all intents and purposes, (it) appears to be an accident," says Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson. "It's absolutely a call nobody wants to have on any day." Some family members witnessed the crash from the airport, which is about 65 miles south of Kansas City. The weather was clear, suggesting that some kind of mechanical issue was at play. The AP provides context, noting that in a review of 32 skydiving accidents between 1980 and 2008, the NTSB found "recurring shortcomings in the maintenance and inspections of aircraft and lax pilot training programs."
In this case, acting airport manager Dennis Jacobs said the plane operated by Skydive Kansas City appeared to lose power, and he thought the pilot may have been trying to make an emergency landing. The aircraft was a Pacific Aerospace P750, which is a favorite of skydivers because nine seats in the back can be easily removed. It's made by NZAero of New Zealand.
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