A high school music teacher, a cancer survivor, and a new father with two baby boys have been identified by family members as victims of a weekend skydiving plane crash in Missouri that killed 12 people.
According to the Bates County Department of Emergency Management, the aircraft, a Pacific Aerospace P750XL, was carrying nine experienced skydivers, two tandem jumpers, and a pilot. All died when the plane – which had just taken off from the Butler, Missouri, airport south of Kansas City – took an unexpected turn and nosedived into the ground 300 yards from the runway.
Victims identified
Music teacher Dave Hershberger, named as one of the 12 victims, was being mourned by students at Oak Park High School and Antioch Middle School, where he also taught, as reported by ABC News affiliate KMBC. The popular educator, who worked for the North Kansas City School District for 11 years, was also a veteran skydiver whose Facebook account was filled with images of him on tandem jumps. Hershberger, who taught band and orchestra, was “not only a passionate educator and talented musician, but one of the kindest humans,” the principals of both schools said in a joint statement.
The mother of Matthew Swope, 39, paid tribute to her son in a Facebook post that requested prayers for his family, including three sisters and two brothers. Dorcie Swope, a widow, said her son “died doing what he loved best.” KMBC cited friends and family members who said Matthew Swope was a survivor of cancer who had completed more than 750 parachute jumps – and was an “expert” skydiver.
The outlet spoke to the father of another victim, who it did not name. “My son was on the plane. He had a new business, two new baby boys and everything was going good for him,” the person said, adding that his son had “been getting into skydiving” and had made up to 500 jumps. “[It’s] just something he loved to do,” he said. “You just never start the morning thinking you’re going to die, you know. He had two new baby boys. It’s tough.”
Final jumps before becoming instructors
At least four of the victims were about to make their final jumps before becoming skydiving instructors, KMBC said. Among them was Will Fischer, 23. “Nothing can describe the grief I feel … To my annoying little brother, I will miss you forever,” his sister posted on Facebook, according to the Kansas City Star. Fischer’s friend Kevin Stone, a skydiving instructor in Chicago with whom he made his first jump, told the newspaper he took a group up on Monday in the same type of plane that crashed in Missouri. “I was breathing a little bit heavier on my first couple loads today [but] I think that if this stopped me from jumping today, Will would be insulted,” Stone said. “I think that he would consider that an insult to his memory. This was the thing that he loved.”
Other victims were identified as Marcus Miller, also an experienced jumper; and Jen Sharp, who was director of technology for the US Parachute Association, a 41,000-member group for skydiving enthusiasts. “Jen was a remarkable force whose passion for the skies was matched only by her dedication to the people in our sport,” the group’s executive director, Albert Berchtold, said in a tribute on its website. “Her loss leaves an unfillable void in our office, our community, and our hearts. We are incredibly grateful for the years of laughter, innovation, and friendship we shared with her.”
KMBC gave the names of Nick Nash, Mike Shanahan, Dane Cordes, and Dustin McKinney among the other victims.
Investigation ongoing
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the cause of the crash was continuing on Tuesday, with preliminary findings expected in the coming weeks. A full report was not expected until at least 2027. The Associated Press reported that the NTSB has said in past investigations that weak oversight of the skydiving industry can allow problems with poor aircraft maintenance to go unnoticed. The agency also cited an incident from the same Butler airport in May 2024 in which six skydivers and a pilot safely parachuted from a plane that went on to crash with nobody left onboard. The NTSB said after a 2019 crash that killed 11 people in Hawaii, that the Federal Aviation Administration’s regulatory system was not robust enough to ensure the safety of skydiving flights. In the crash on the island of Oahu, investigators found that the wing of the plane was twisted during a previous incident several years earlier and was never repaired.
