‘We lost a lot of friends.’ Butler, MO, skydiving crash among the worst in decades
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- The plane carried 11 skydivers and a pilot, totaling 12 people aboard.
- Bates County officials said the aircraft failed to reach full power before stalling.
- The crash killed all 12 aboard and was one of the deadliest U.S. skydiving incidents.
Charles Crinklaw is trying to process the devastating loss suffered when a plane full of skydivers crashed Sunday in Butler, Missouri, killing everyone aboard.
Crinklaw said he knew almost all of the 12 who died.
“I’m spending a lot of time talking to my friends that are also in the sport with me that are … we’re a very close-knit family,” Crinklaw told The Star in a phone interview on Monday. “Several people that are my military member friends are calling me because they are jumpers with me, and they’re out of town. So, I’m just trying to process everything right now.”
Crinklaw serves as the United States Parachute Association regional director for the area covering Missouri. While the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigate the crash, the USPA will also conduct an investigation, he said.
“Investigating your friends passing away is very overwhelming,” Crinklaw said. “I had friends that were actually there that witnessed it actually happen, spoke with them several times, just trying to get a little more handle on what, what they thought happened.”
The plane, filled with 11 skydivers and a pilot, crashed shortly after taking off from Butler Memorial Airport. Crinklaw said a majority of the victims were veteran skydivers. Four of them, he said, were there to take part in a coaching course.
“These people were all doing their final dives so they could get their ratings as a coach, which means they’re allowed to start training new skydivers,” Crinklaw said. “We lost a lot of friends yesterday.”
‘Premier skydiving center of Kansas City’
For nearly three decades, Skydive Kansas City has operated out of Butler Memorial Airport.
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.
A 2016 profile in The Star described a close-knit community built around the drop zone, one that brought together people who share a passion for the activity.
Chris Hall told The Star at the time that Skydive Kansas City had experienced steady growth since opening its doors. The company grew into one of the region’s best-known skydiving operations, offering tandem jumps from 14,000 feet and serving as a training center approved by the United States Parachute Association.
In 2024, when Chris Hall retired, the business was purchased by Bucketlist Experience, which also operates skydiving companies in Indiana and Wisconsin, according to the company’s website. Bucketlist Experience is owned by Little Engine Ventures, a private investment partnership located in Lafayette, Indiana, the website says.
Crash after takeoff
The crash was reported about 11:27 a.m., Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson said in a news conference Sunday afternoon. The plane was a locally-based, 10-person aircraft. The airport is about an hour’s drive south of Kansas City.
Bates County officials said the aircraft failed to reach full power before stalling and crashing near Interstate 49 Business. Federal investigators with the NTSB and FAA are now working to determine what caused the crash.
The plane 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.
It wasn’t the first crash involving a Skydive KC jump.
In May 2024, just a few months after Little Engine Ventures bought the company, a plane crashed near the Butler Memorial Airport after a skydiver’s parachute deployed over the plane’s tail, striking the stabilizer and sending the aircraft out of control, according to an NTSB report.
The NTSB said the plane was destroyed. The six passengers and the pilot parachuted to safety, but the skydiver whose parachute deployed was seriously injured.
Skydive Kansas City called Sunday’s crash “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,” the company said in a statement.
The statement described the same tight-knit community that was described a decade ago.
“The entire team is in shock, and the community is close-knit,” the statement said. “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.”
One of the deadliest skydiving incidents in decades
Sunday’s crash was among the deadliest U.S. skydiving incidents in decades, according to statistics.
On June 21, 2019, a Beechcraft King Air with 10 skydivers on board crashed shortly after takeoff from Dillingham Airfield near Waialua, Hawaii. The plane banked sharply, then plunged nose down to the ground, killing the pilot and all 10 passengers.
“The aircraft was operated by Oahu Parachute Center, one of three drop zones located on the airport,” said a story on the U.S. Parachute Association’s website. “In addition to the pilot, the plane carried three tandem students and their three tandem instructors, two videographers and two skydivers.”
The U.S. Parachute Association said the Hawaii crash was the deadliest jump plane crash since September 1995, when a Beechcraft Queen Air went down near West Point, Virginia. The plane crashed into a house and exploded, killing 10 skydivers, the pilot and a man sitting on his back porch.
Crinklaw said that skydiving accidents have become less common over the last two decades, with more emphasis being placed on maintaining the aircrafts.
“It’s extremely rare for a plane to go down with all the skydivers in it,” Crinklaw said. “It doesn’t happen.”
Other fatal skydiving crashes in Missouri
Sunday’s crash was at least the fourth deadly skydiving incident in Missouri since 1998.
On March 21, 1998, a Cessna 206 caught fire and crashed on its approach to the East Kansas City Airport near Grain Valley, killing the pilot and five skydivers.
The NTSB said the flight was at 3,700 feet when the pilot radioed the controller and said he was canceling the jump operation. Several witnesses said they saw smoke and flames coming from the plane as it approached. The plane banked right, they said, then the right wingtip hit the ground and the plane cartwheeled and came to rest on fire.
The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the accident was an inadequate preflight inspection by the pilot and the partial loss of oil, which resulted in rod failure.
In 2001, a Jackson County judge approved a $27.5 million settlement with the plane’s engine manufacturer for the families of the skydivers and the pilot.
Six people died in a July 2006 skydiving crash out of Sullivan, Missouri. A NTSB report said the plane lost engine power in the right engine of the plane shortly after takeoff and crashed into trees.
The pilot and five of the skydivers were killed in the crash and two skydivers were seriously injured.
“Witnesses at the airport reported that they saw the airplane take off and climb to about treetop height, then they heard a ‘poof’ or ‘bang’ noise and saw flames and smoke coming from the right engine,” the NTSB report said.
The report said that witnesses claimed that the airplane lost some altitude before regaining it, then flew at a level of treetop height and turned right before disappearing from their view.
Another witness claimed that the plane was flying very low but straight and level before it dove nose first to the ground.
“The Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilot’s failure to maintain airspeed following a loss of power in the right engine due to the fracturing of compressor turbine blades for undetermined reasons,” the report said.
Two skydivers were killed in an April 2008 crash in Mount Vernon, Missouri, following a loss of flight control. According to the NTSB report, the two skydivers were killed after one’s reserve parachute became tangled around the tail of the plane, and the other was found dead inside the airplane. The pilot and another skydiver were seriously injured and three skydivers were unharmed.
The report said that one of the surviving skydivers said that the airplane had climbed to 10,500 feet and the pilot had signaled for the door to open. After opening the door, she noticed that the airplane had overshot the drop zone by about 1 mile. As the plane took a right turn, the stall warning horn sounded and the plane entered into a spin.
Three people were able to exit the airplane and safely make it down.
This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 2:48 PM.
