Skydiving plane crashes in Missouri, US, killing 12 people

In the US state of Missouri, a skydiving plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers plunges into a field and catches fire near the Butler Memorial Airport south of Kansas City.

All 12 people on board have been killed.

Sheriff Chad Anderson of Bates County says: "Today, at 11:30 this morning, we had a plane crash on the property of the airport. We are treating that as a mass casualty. This is not a commercial airliner that has crashed. We're still trying to identify family and make notifications and so we're going to be respectful of that. There were witnesses that were family members, yes."

Emergency vehicles are lining up around a heap of blue and silver mangled metal in a grassy area, with plumes of smoke rising from the debris.

The single-engine turboprop airplane is identified as a Pacific Aerospace 750XL.