KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers counties south of the Kansas City area on the Missouri side, including Cass and Bates counties. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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Residents of Butler, Missouri, and the greater Kansas City-area skydiving community are in mourning after a plane carrying 11 skydivers and a pilot crashed Sunday morning, killing all 12 on board.
“Right now, it’s heart-wrenching to be real honest,” John Gray, North Commissioner, Bates County, Missouri, said Sunday in an interview with KSHB 41 News reporter Ryan Gamboa. “We’re a pretty tight-knit community.”
Gray said he knows a lot of people who jump.
“You think about all the people in your community that you know have jumped over the years or flown out of that airport or taught out of that airport; you just pray it's not somebody you know,” Gray said. “You pray for the families and the friends of those families that lost loved ones today.”
According to Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson, the plane had just taken off for another skydiving flight when it crashed before it could leave the airport.
He said Sunday that family members of those on the flight were among the witnesses on the ground who saw the crash.
"Our hearts go out to them," Anderson said. "We just pray for them and their loved ones and their friends and their family."
Anderson said authorities were working Sunday afternoon to contact family members of those who were killed in the crash.
The private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City, said Dennis Jacobs, the acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director. It was identified as a single-engine turboprop plane.
“It had just taken off and made a left turn” before the crash, Jacobs told the Associated Press. “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.”
Skydive Kansas City has offered skydiving flights out of the airport for years.
“This is a devastating loss for everyone connected to Skydive Kansas City and for the wider skydiving community,” the company said in a statement Sunday afternoon. “Our deepest sympathies are with the families, friends and loved ones of all who were lost.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Alford (R - 4th District, Missouri) was among those who responded to the community Sunday to offer support.
“These investigations take months, sometimes years, but we want to comfort the families and give them the support they need,” Alford said. “We also want to find out exactly what happened.”
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation on Monday. Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived on scene Sunday afternoon.
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