A pilot and 11 passengers died on June 14 after their plane crashed shortly after takeoff at a western Missouri airport, in one of the deadliest US skydiving plane crashes in decades, authorities said.
The plane had just taken off from Butler Memorial Airport at about 11:35 am local time, the Federal Aviation Administration said, when it was unable to gain altitude, made a sharp left turn, and crashed some 300 yards (about 274 meters) from the runway.
The exact cause of the crash remains under investigation, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it could take one to two years to determine what happened.
This tragic event is nonetheless a rarity. Indeed, did you know that the worst crashes in American history (aside from terrorist attacks) happened, for the most part, over 20 years ago? Read on to learn more about the worst airplane crashes in the United States.