BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — A plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed in a field and was engulfed in flames Sunday, killing all aboard, authorities said.
The crash happened shortly after the plane took off from a local airport around 11:30 a.m., and some of the occupants’ family members witnessed the crash, said Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson. Clergy and volunteers went to the scene to assist the relatives, Anderson said, and officials were still working later to identify some of the victims and notify their next of kin.
A heap of blue and silver mangled metal wreckage lay in the grass near Butler Memorial Airport with a massive line-up of emergency vehicles on a nearby street.
Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration were on scene Sunday afternoon, Anderson said, and a team from the National Transportation Safety Board was en route to investigate.