Pilot, 6 passengers on skydiving flight jump before small plane crashes in Missouri hayfield
A pilot and six passengers on a skydiving flight jumped from a small plane just before the aircraft crashed in a Missouri field on Saturday, according to federal authorities.
The single-engine Cessna U206C crashed at about 1 p.m. near the Butler Memorial Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Few details about the circumstances leading up to the crash were immediately available.
The agency said preliminary information indicates the plane was flying a "skydiving mission," and that the pilot and all passengers escaped the plane before the crash.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed to Fox News Digital that there were seven people aboard the aircraft at the time of the flight.
The pilot, who parachuted off the plane, was located in a hangar at the airport, according to the Bates County Sheriff's Office. The six passengers also parachuted from the plane before the crash, KCTV reported.
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Paramedics treated the pilot and passengers at the scene before they were all released, the sheriff's office said.
First responders found the aircraft wreckage in a hayfield east of the airport’s runways, according to the sheriff's office, which described the plane as a "total loss."
NTSB investigators will recover the wreckage and take it to an offsite facility for further examination.
The Butler Memorial Airport is about 62 miles south of Kansas City.