Skydiving was ‘love at first sight’ for young victim of Missouri plane crash
In his first Instagram post from April 2025, Will Fischer can be seen grinning from ear to ear as he and fellow skydivers grasp hands to form a circle so high up that the ground below resembles a patchwork quilt.
The video is set to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”
In his last video, posted to his Facebook page on June 7 and tagged to Butler, Missouri, Fischer is again in free fall. It’s captioned simply, “I still love to fly.”
The 23-year-old De Soto resident was one of 12 people who died on Sunday when a tiny aircraft full of skydivers crashed near the Butler Memorial Airport shortly before noon. Authorities have not officially released the names of victims, but Fischer was identified in social media posts by family and friends.
“Nothing can describe the grief I feel... to my annoying little brother, I will miss you forever…,” his sister posted to Facebook on Monday morning.
Other tributes poured in from friends. “Man, this video is beautiful and sad,” one friend commented on Fischer’s June 7 post. “Fly free, brother,” another person posted.
Connor Habiger met Fischer during their freshman year at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, shortly after Fischer moved from South Dakota. In a statement to The Star, Habiger referred to his friend affectionately as “Willy-J.” They remained close after graduation, Habiger said, and it was on a group trip to Colorado that Fischer got his first taste of skydiving.
“For him, it was love at first sight,” Habiger said. “I think skydiving made him feel free.”
He parlayed that love into a job as a wind tunnel instructor at iFLY indoor skydiving center in Overland Park.
His quest for the ultimate adrenaline rush wasn’t limited to skydiving, though. In other social media videos, Fischer can be seen BASE jumping enthusiastically from sheer cliffs with only a parachute to break his fall. In one post from March, he petitioned for a sponsorship: “Red Bull please contact me.”
Habiger described Fischer as “very outgoing” and “a true daredevil.”
“He had a contagious laugh, and believed in the good inside everyone,” Habiger said. “I count myself lucky for having the privilege of calling him my friend. I will love and miss him until we see one another on the other side.”
Another of Fischer’s friends made a memorial post calling him “an inspiration” who was “on a path to mastery” of skydiving. The pair both earned their solo skydiving licenses in the summer of 2024, according to the post.
“I will forever miss our post-tunnel dinner debriefs, gymnastics nights, deep talks about life and the universe, car jam sessions, and of course our time in the sky,” Fischer’s friend posted. “I can only hope to someday become a fraction of the person he was; so free spirited, so much love for adventure, and always lighting up the room with joy and laughter.”
The names of nine other victims identified through tributes by family members, friends and others on social media so far include Jen Sharp, an internationally recognized skydiver and instructor, Matthew Cole Swope, Michael Shanahan, Dustin McKinney, Dane Cordes, Nick Nash, Marcus Miller, Blake Thacker and David Hershberger.
The making of a skydiving nickname
Kevin Stone, an experienced skydiving instructor, said he coached Fischer and four of the other passengers on the plane that crashed in Butler. He helped Fischer earn his solo skydiving license at Falcon Skydiving in Kansas City and later gave him gear when he got into BASE jumping.
It was after Fischer’s first-ever training jump that he acquired a distinctive nickname in the skydiving community, Stone said. He earned it while recounting his jump to fellow skydivers minutes after touching down.
“He was talking about the canopy portion (of the parachute). And he said, ‘The canopy opened and I grabbed ahold of the mittens,’” Stone said. “He was talking about the toggles — the little yellow toggles that sit on the back of the riser.
“Those are the control lines that you grab and use to control the parachute,” Stone said. “He had forgotten the name for it, so he called them the mittens.”
The congregated group of thrill-seekers burst into laughter, Stone remembered. From that day on, Fischer was known affectionately as “Mittens.”
Stone, who now works as a skydiving instructor in Chicago, said he made nine jumps with trainees on Monday from the same model of plane as the one that went down in Butler — a PAC P-750 XSTOL.
“I was breathing a little bit heavier on my first couple loads today,” Stone said afterward. But he thought taking the day off would have been worse.
“I think that if this stopped me from jumping today, Will would be insulted,” Stone said. “I think that he would consider that an insult to his memory. This was the thing that he loved.”
The Star’s Eric Adler, Laura Bauer, Nathan Pilling, Kacen Bayless, Ben Wheeler, Jack Harvel, Ilana Arougheti and Dylan Lysen contributed reporting.
This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 4:32 PM.
