The Missouri skydiving community is mourning the loss of several of its members after a plane crash south of Kansas City killed 11 skydivers and a pilot.
The crash occurred around noon on Sunday in Butler, Missouri, as an aircraft supporting operations for Skydive Kansas City was taking off, the company said in a statement on Monday, as reported by the local news outlet KCTV.
Confirming the loss of all 12 people on board, the company said: “This is a devastating loss for everyone connected to Skydive Kansas City and for the wider skydiving community. Our deepest sympathies are with the families, friends, and loved ones of all who were lost.
“We ask for privacy as we direct all efforts toward managing this tragedy and remaining available to authorities as they work to determine the cause,” the company continued. The company added that it is working alongside authorities in Butler, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as the investigation into a cause for the crash continues.
“At this time,” the company’s statement said, “the focus of the management and ownership team is to assist investigators and to support the staff and the broader skydiving community. The entire team is in shock, and the community is close-knit.”
The names of those killed in Sunday’s crash were not available Monday morning, with authorities saying efforts to notify their next of kin were still ongoing. But the director of the local county emergency management department, Dennis Jacobs, shared some details about the victims without identifying to them.
Speaking to Missouri’s KMBC news station, Jacobs said the crashed aircraft was carrying nine experienced skydivers, two tandem jumpers and a pilot.
The plane had taken off shortly before turning and nosediving approximately 300 yards from the runway, Jacobs told KMBC.
Bates county sheriff Chad Anderson also expressed his condolences during a Sunday press conference.
“Our hearts go out to them,” he said. “There’s nothing you can say to make it better. We just pray for their loved ones, their families and they can recover some sense of normalcy. Same thing with the first responders.”
He added: “At this point, this appears to be an accident.”
Sunday’s tragedy reverberated deeply within the local skydiving community. Speaking to Missouri’s KSHB 41 outlet, Charles Crinklaw, a skydiver with nearby Falcon Skydiving, said many of those on board were people he knew personally.
“Everybody on that plane was somebody that I know,” he said. “I know four of them very, very well. They jumped with me [at Falcon Skydiving] on a regular basis.”
Describing one of the victims, Crinklaw said she had been working with the United States Parachute Association.
“She was teaching new instructors how to be coaches,” he said. “It shocked everybody. We just were walking around here numb for a while.”
In a statement to the Guardian, the NTSB said: “On scene, investigators will begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft. Part of the investigation will be to request radar data, weather information, maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records.
“NTSB investigators will look at the human, machine and environment as the outline of the investigation.”
