Skydive Kansas City: 5 things to know about the deadly Butler airplane crash
As federal investigators work to determine what caused a skydiving plane to crash Sunday shortly after takeoff from Butler Memorial Airport, killing all 12 people aboard, here are five things to know about Skydive Kansas City.
- The company was founded in 1998 by skydivers Chris Hall and his father, John Hall, and for nearly three decades has operated out of Butler Memorial Airport. On its website, the company says it “has earned the reputation for being the premier skydiving center of Kansas City because of our impeccable safety record, customer service, and turbine aircraft.”
- John Hall was considered for years to be among the best demonstration jumpers in the region, the company’s website says. Chris Hall began skydiving when he was 18, competed in the ESPN X Games Pro Tour in 1996 and has become an expert in freefall photography, according to the website.
- In 2024, when Hall retired, the business was purchased by Bucketlist Experience, which also operates skydiving companies in Indiana and Wisconsin, its website says. Bucketlist Experience is owned by another company called Little Engine Ventures, a private investment partnership founded in 2016 and located in Lafayette, Indiana.
- In May 2024, just a few months after Little Engine Ventures bought Skydive KC, a skydiving plane crashed near the Butler Memorial Airport after a skydiver’s parachute deployed over a small plane’s tail, causing damage that sent the aircraft out of control, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB said the plane was destroyed and the skydiver was seriously injured. Five other passengers and the pilot parachuted to safety.
- Sunday’s crash was reported about 11:27 a.m., Bates County authorities said. The airport is about an hour’s drive south of Kansas City. Bates County EMA officials said the 10-person aircraft failed to reach full power before stalling and crashing near Interstate 49 Business. The plane, a Pacific Aerospace 750XL single-engine turboprop built in 2010, was on its third flight Sunday morning, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking platform. It had completed short flights from 9:20 a.m. to 9:42 a.m. and from 10:32 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. Federal investigators with the NTSB and FAA are now working to determine what caused the crash.
Ben Wheeler
The Kansas City Star
Judy L Thomas
The Kansas City Star