Parachute Twist Dooms Skydiving Flight

A skydiving plane crashed near Butler Memorial Airport in Missouri on Sunday, killing all 12 people on board — and early evidence points to a freak accident that began the moment a jumper moved toward the door.

Story Highlights

All 12 people aboard — 11 skydivers and the pilot — died when their plane crashed near Butler Memorial Airport in Butler, Missouri on June 14.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says a skydiver’s parachute accidentally deployed over the plane’s tail, damaging the horizontal stabilizer and causing the aircraft to lose control.
The plane, a Cessna U206, crashed into a field near the airport at approximately 11:30 a.m.
Federal investigators are still working to confirm the final cause, and a full National Transportation Safety Board report has not yet been released.

What Happened Over Butler, Missouri

A plane carrying 11 skydivers and a pilot took off from Butler Memorial Airport on Sunday morning for what was meant to be a routine jump. The crash took place around 11:30 a.m. local time. Bates County Emergency Management confirmed all 12 people on board were killed. The airport sits about 65 miles south of Kansas City. Emergency crews responded quickly, but there were no survivors.

The aircraft was a Cessna U206, a small single-engine plane commonly used for skydiving operations. The plane went down in a hay field near the airport. Witnesses and emergency crews found the wreckage twisted and heavily damaged. U.S. Representative Mark Alford, who represents the Bates County area, spoke publicly about the tragedy and expressed condolences to the victims’ families.^[8]

A Parachute Struck the Tail — Here’s What the FAA Says

The FAA reported that as the first jumper moved toward the exit door, he accidentally scraped his emergency parachute handle. That caused the parachute to deploy inside or near the aircraft. The chute then went over the tail of the plane and struck the horizontal stabilizer — the part that controls the nose-up and nose-down movement of the aircraft.^[6] Without that control surface working, the pilot could not keep the plane flying level.

Once the horizontal stabilizer was damaged, the plane lost control and went down.^[1] The FAA’s account gives investigators a clear starting point. The aircraft’s tail number was N29173. Aviation safety records show the probable cause centers on the unintentional deployment of the jumper’s emergency parachute and its impact with the stabilizer.^[6] That kind of freak chain reaction — one small mistake leading to a catastrophic outcome — is rare but not unheard of in skydiving aviation.

Investigation Still Open — Final Answers Take Time

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for determining the official cause of any aviation accident. That process takes months. Investigators examine the wreckage, interview witnesses, review maintenance records, and study weather and flight data. The FAA’s early account gives a strong starting point, but the final NTSB report could confirm, refine, or add to what is known right now.^[11]

A plane carrying passengers for skydiving crashed in Missouri on Sunday, killing all 12 people aboard, according to authorities. In a statement, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that the crash occurred near the Butler Memorial Airport.https://t.co/UKVxPW0UEL

— WLOS (@WLOS_13) June 14, 2026

Aviation experts caution that early explanations — even ones from official sources — can shift as more evidence comes in. In this case, a separate prior incident involving the same aircraft type showed a similar parachute-strike scenario, which adds weight to the FAA’s account.^[6] Still, until the NTSB closes its investigation, the full picture remains incomplete. For now, 12 families are grieving a sudden and devastating loss on what started as a clear Sunday morning in rural Missouri.