Skydiving plane crash investigations often reveal poor maintenance and weak safety oversight

By — Josh Funk, Associated Press Josh Funk, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/skydiving-plane-crash-investigations-often-reveal-poor-maintenance-and-weak-safety-oversight Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Skydiving plane crash investigations often reveal poor maintenance and weak safety oversight Nation Jun 15, 2026 2:21 PM EDT Poor maintenance is often a factor when skydiving planes crash like one did in Missouri on Sunday, and the National Transportation Safety Board has said in past investigations that weak oversight of the skydiving industry can allow problems to go unnoticed. It is far too soon to know what caused this weekend's crash that happened shortly after a plane took off from a small airport about an hour south of Kansas City. Twelve people died in the crash while some of their family members watched from the ground at Butler Memorial Airport. The NTSB will work to determine what happened over the next year or more before publishing its final report on the cause although the agency will release some preliminary details over the next month. Just two years ago, another skydiving plane crashed near the same airport, but in that case everyone aboard was able to parachute to safety beforehand. The NTSB found that the handle for deploying a skydiver's emergency parachute got caught on something and sent him crashing into the plane's horizontal stabilizer as he jumped, causing the crash. Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said that too often, a skydiving crash investigation reveals lax maintenance and a weak safety culture. The Federal Aviation Administration rules that govern the industry can allow issues like these to fester because the safety standards for skydiving operations aren't as stringent as the rules for charter flight operators or airlines. "These skydiving operations don't have the best maintenance to make sure they've got airworthy airframes and engines because they don't undergo the normal scrutiny that an air charter service does," said Guzzetti, who used to be a crash investigator for both the NTSB and FAA. READ MORE: 12 dead in crash of plane on skydiving outing in Missouri, authorities say The NTSB said after a 2019 crash that killed 11 people in Hawaii that the FAA's regulatory system isn't strong enough to ensure the safety of skydiving flights. In that crash, investigators found that the wing of the plane had been twisted during a previous incident several years earlier and had never been repaired. The FAA inspections that were done on the plane before the crash failed to spot the damaged left wing of the plane. In a previous review of 32 skydiving accidents between 1980 and 2008, the NTSB found recurring shortcomings in the maintenance and inspections of aircraft and lax pilot training programs. But the FAA never took the recommended actions to strengthen the safety standards for skydiving companies. The skydivin