{"id":1741,"date":"2026-06-18T18:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2026-06-18T18:03:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:03:35","slug":"veteran-colorado-skydiving-instructor-among-12-killed-in-missouri-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1741","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Colorado skydiving instructor among 12 killed in Missouri plane crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Colorado skydiving instructor who had made over 6,800 jumps. A drummer who was meticulous about safety since falling in love with the sport that helped him sober up. A software engineer on the cusp of becoming a certified skydiving coach. A grandfather honoring his sister lost to cancer.<\/p>\n

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Family and friends of the 11 jumpers and pilot killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off in Missouri on Sunday said they loved their hobby \u2014 whether it was to find personal peace or to share a once-in-a-lifetime experience with others. They remembered the experienced skydivers as people who may have had regular jobs to pay their bills but free falling brought both the thrill and the serenity they craved.<\/p>\n

The coroner in Bent County, Missouri, this week identified the people killed in the crash. Among them was Jennifer L. Sharp, of Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

Sharp, 55, took her first jump in 1989 when she was 18. Some 6,800 jumps later, she was a legendary instructor at the highest levels of the sport and the coach for 25-year-old Blake Thacker\u2019s certification that weekend.<\/p>\n

On her blog, Sharp wrote about how she jumped into Denver\u2019s Coors Field ballpark while dressed as the queen of England and loved to go tandem with people skydiving for the first time and to see them test their resolve, grow personally and just feel alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing trained by Jen Sharp was like taking piano lessons from Beethoven,\u201d her friend Greg Upper told The Associated Press, calling Sharp a philosopher. \u201cThat\u2019s how big of a deal she was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plane crashed shortly after takeoff<\/h4>\n

The plane was barely off the ground Sunday \u2014 only about 100 feet in the air \u2014 when it made an abrupt left turn before crashing on a sunny day. It appeared to be losing power, witnesses said.<\/p>\n

Skydive Kansas City operated the single-engine turboprop Pacific Aerospace 750XL built in 2010 out of an airport in the small town of Butler, roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Kansas City.<\/p>\n

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The plane arrived in Butler for the first time on June 5, according to data from FlightRadar24.com. Pictures of the aircraft posted on social media showed it still had advertising from Chattanooga Skydiving Co. Its flight history showed it had previously been flying for weeks at a time in Tennessee and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

A woman who answered the phone at the Chattanooga Skydiving Co. hung up Tuesday when a reporter identified himself.<\/p>\n

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating all factors leading to the crash including how much experience the pilot had with this model of plane and any mechanical or structural problems with the aircraft.<\/p>\n

The 12 people killed were identified as Sharp, Thacker, Kurt John Roy, Michael Shanahan, David Hershberger, Sai Karthik Varma Datla, Matthew Swope, Dustin McKinney, Marcus Miller, Nicholas Nash, William Fischer and Dane Cordes, according to the Bates County Coroner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

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Skydiving helped one jumper get sober<\/h4>\n

McKinney\u2019s wife said her husband was meticulous about safety when he jumped after his love for skydiving prompted him to get sober seven years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like this is the only way that skydiving could have taken out Dustin, because it was such a freak accident,\u201d Kathryn Nold said. \u201cIt was the most horrific thing. It\u2019s still very surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinney, 44, of Stilwell, Kansas, worked at a furniture store and played drums in Kansas City-area bands. The father of two also had a part-time paying gig as a videographer for Skydive Kansas City.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could just immediately make people feel seen and warm and want to be around him, and I just feel infinitely lucky that we were the center of his world and able to experience that love from him that he gave so effortlessly to everyone,\u201d Nold said of her high school sweetheart.<\/p>\n

Honoring his sister by jumping<\/h4>\n

Shanahan, 54, of Kansas City, took up skydiving just before his older sister Nikki died from breast cancer in 2016, his mother said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to live his life and make it worth having fun, having a good time, doing something he enjoyed, and skydiving was something he had always wanted to do, unbeknownst to us,\u201d Gloria Shanahan told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

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Shanahan honored his sister by skydiving on her birthday, Mother\u2019s Day and the anniversary of her death. He then visited her grave.<\/p>\n

Shanahan jumped Saturday just for fun. He booked Sunday\u2019s jump as a backup in case the weather was bad but decided to go ahead and jump both days anyway, his mother said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not regret that he did. He got to live the life that he wanted to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Shanahan\u2019s skydiving instructor was Hershberger, who was on the plane with him Sunday. The two had another bond. Hershberger taught violin to two of Shanahan\u2019s grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Hershberger, 54, of Liberty, Missouri, also taught orchestra and played trumpet with the Kansas City Wind Symphony. His summers were spent at Skydive Kansas City, often harnessed to inexperienced jumpers exhilarated and nervous to cross something off their bucket lists.<\/p>\n

Skydiving to find out more about yourself<\/h4>\n

Thacker, of Olathe, Kansas, jumped for seven years since first skydiving on his 18th birthday. He was set to get his skydiving coach certification over the weekend, his mother Sherry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkydiving had given him the confidence to do other things in his life, to be successful and reach for things maybe he thought he wasn\u2019t good enough to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Thacker was an aviation software engineer and his mother saw that same methodical safety-oriented focus in his hobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2019Mom the danger in skydiving is really not the diving it\u2019s the plane,\u2019\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

Swope, 39, of Independence, Missouri, worked in IT, but every weekend he was up in the sky as he searched for any bit of fun, especially something he could share with others, his best friend, Justin Williams, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved it. He gets to take people on their once-in-a-lifetime adventure every weekend, multiple times a day,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

After Swope\u2019s death, Williams said, he\u2019s terrified to go skydiving again but also knows he has to because his friend knew to truly live is to take risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary to be in the door, but the moment you let go, it dissolves away and induces a state of presence that you will not find anywhere else,\u201d Williams said of free falling. \u201cYou don\u2019t worry about the future. You\u2019re not sad about the past. You\u2019re just present, and it\u2019s the most peaceful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The skydiving industry says it has a strong safety record. The United States Parachute Association said that last year nearly 3.5 million jumps were completed and that 16 civilians died, the majority from human error.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Sports betting is changing the game for Colorado\u2019s fans and athletes as big money adds new pressures<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coroner in Bent County, Missouri, this week identified the people killed in the crash. Among them was Jennifer L. 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