Butler, Missouri: Skydiving accident leaves 12 people presumed dead soon after plane’s take off from airport

A skydiving adventure turned into a nightmare when a light aircraft carrying 12 people plunged to the ground and burst into flames moments after take-off in Missouri.

The plane, carrying 11 passengers and a pilot, crashed shortly after departing Butler Memorial Airport on Sunday morning, with emergency crews rushing to the scene about 11.30am local time amid reports the aircraft was down and engulfed in fire.

Acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director Dennis Jacobs said the aircraft appeared to struggle for power almost immediately after leaving the runway. Witnesses watched as it failed to gain altitude, banked sharply to the left and then fell from the sky.

“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,” he said.

Mr Jacobs described the aftermath as “brutal”, with firefighters managing to extinguish the blaze shortly after the wreckage hit the ground.

According to NBC News, Butler County Sheriff Chad Anderson described the crash as a “mass casualty” event.

While the amount of fatalities has not been officially confirmed, all 12 people onboard are presumed dead.

First responders have checked the area under the flight path and did not find anyone who might have tried to jump out before the crash, Mr Jacobs said.

Sheriff Anderson said a 911 call was made moments before the plane went down and that some family members of those onboard had witnessed the crash.

“There’s there’s nothing we really can say to make it better,” he said.

“We just pray for them and their loved ones, and their friends and their family and hope that they can recover to some sense of normalcy.”

Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Justin Ewing said the adjacent road had been shut down “just as a precaution” as the field is littered with a heap of blue and silver mangled metal.

Sergeant Ewing said it was not known how the crash occurred, but confirmed that the plane was taking people up to skydive.

The airport remains closed.

Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said that poor maintenance has been a factor in some previous skydiving plane crashes because these companies are not held to a high standard under Federal Aviation Administration rules.

Mr Guzzetti said skydiving companies are governed by the same rules any private plane owner has to follow and not the more stringent rules that charter flight operators and airlines adhere to.

The town of Butler is roughly 100 kilometres south of Kansas City and has a population of about 4300 people.