12 Killed in Missouri Plane Crash While En Route to Skydiving Jump

U.S. investigators are trying to determine what caused a fatal plane crash in Missouri on Monday that killed the pilot and 11 passengers who were heading out for a skydiving trip. The crash, one of the deadliest involving a skydiving aircraft in the United States in decades, has renewed concerns about safety standards in the industry.

According to U.S. media reports, the single-engine Pacific Aerospace 750XL took off from Butler Memorial Airport in Missouri, about 100 kilometers south of Kansas City, at about 11:35 a.m. local time, 7:35 p.m. in Israel. Soon after departure, it made a sharp left turn, went down in a field about 270 meters from the runway, and burst into flames. The exact cause is still under investigation, and the National Transportation Safety Board may take one or two years to issue its final report.

Nine of the 12 victims were experienced skydivers, while the other two passengers had planned to do tandem jumps, with a professional instructor handling every stage of the skydive. Officials said some witnesses to the crash were relatives of the victims. Travis Pippen, who said he lost several friends in the disaster, told CNN it was a "heartbreaking" event and said the skydiving community is tightly knit, adding that losing so many respected friends at once was "devastating."

The aircraft, built in 2010 and operated by Skydive Kansas City, is widely used for skydiving but also for cargo, aerial mapping and medical evacuation flights. It had already completed two short flights earlier that morning. The crash was the deadliest skydiving-plane accident since 1995 and brought the total number of deaths in such crashes in the past decade to 36, after eight earlier fatal accidents killed 25 people. Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told AP that poor maintenance has played a major role in several past skydiving-plane crashes, and he argued that operators are subject only to rules for private aircraft owners, not the stricter standards that apply to charter and airline operations.