Neighbors in Butler react to skydiving crash that killed 12: ‘It just broke my heart’

To the neighbors bordering the Butler Memorial Airport, the fall and crash of the tiny aircraft and the death of 12 people on Sunday all seemed to have happened in silence.

Most weekends, when the winds are calm between March and October, people here can hear the props of the skydiving planes cruising the sky above. The air can be so quiet in the Bates County town of Butler, a rural community of 4,400 one hour south of Kansas City, that when the skydivers, often strapped in tandem, pop their chutes, neighbors Daniel and Kendra Stewart can hear the wafting sound of them filling with air.

“Then you can hear all the guys kind of laughing and yelling to each other,” said Kendra, who said that she’s sometimes given the skydivers a car lift back to the airfield when they land in nearby fields. “That’s why we’re so surprised we didn’t hear anything (on Sunday), because we can hear them talking in the sky.”

From preliminary reports, it is believed that the Pacific Aerospace 750XL, a single-engine turboprop plane often referred to as a P750 and operated by Skydive Kansas City, barely made it into the air, reaching maybe 100 feet above the runway, before it banked and crashed.

Kendra Stewart saw a Facebook alert about the crash. She walked outside her home. She could see the emergency vehicles at the airfield and white smoke rising from the crash site.

As of Sunday evening, the names of those killed had yet to be released.

The pilot was known to be among the dead. How many of the other 11 were skydiving instructors or students of varying experience remained unclear.

“It’s extremely tragic. It’s sad,” said Kendra Stewart. She said that for residents of Butler, the sight of skydivers is part of the life of the town.

“It’s like some people go to the lake on the weekend, some people golf on the weekends. They skydive on the weekends,” she said.

Family members gathered for much of the day on the edge of the airfield, kept separated from a throng of media by Butler police, the Bates County Sheriff’s Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol. Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration were on site. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive early Sunday evening.

“It just broke my heart. You don’t know if they’re local or not,” said another neighbor, Jeff Davis. His backyard is located but a few hundred yards south of the airfield. “It’s just so sad. So sad.”

He also said that on most any calm weekend day, and some weekdays, he also watches the skydivers.

“They were up this morning, because it was so calm and beautiful this morning,” he said. “That’s why they were out there so early. They have to wait for the wind to be right for them to be able to jump … Even during the week, in the evenings. If it’s a nice evening, they do it.”

Typically, at this time of year, he said he generally sees the skydivers at least once a week, usually jumping in tandem. Although this year, he said, has been a little unusual.

“This year,” he said, “there’s been very few, because it’s been raining so much.” Winds, he said, have been high.

Stacy Heckadon, who lives just northwest of the airfield, was in his home when the crash occurred. It was only after he heard about it on the news that he wondered whether he had perhaps heard the crash, although he was unsure.

“I don’t know if it was a regular landing or not. I wasn’t really paying attention,“ he said. Then he left his home and saw the emergency vehicles, the road in front of the airport blocked off.

“Nothing to alert me that something bad had happened,” he said.