Missouri plane crash kills 12

WASHINGTON: Twelve people were killed when a plane crashed on Sunday near Butler Memorial Airport in the US state of Missouri, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The highway patrol said in a post on X that the crash took place near the airport in Butler, a city about 60 miles south of Kansas City. The agency said all 12 people on board were believed to have died.

In its social media statement, the patrol said: "At this time, reports indicate all occupants (12 total) have perished."

Separately, local media in Brazil reported that six people were killed earlier in a mid-air collision involving two helicopters in Rio de Janeiro. Globo News said the crash happened at around 11:59 GMT in the southwestern neighbourhood of Recreio dos Bandeirantes.

One helicopter was carrying four passengers and a pilot, while the other had only a pilot on board. A spokesperson for the RJ Fire Department said there were no survivors.

One of the helicopters exploded after hitting the ground near a parking area with electric vehicles, setting off additional blasts and sending smoke high into the air. The second aircraft came down upside down but did not catch fire. Wreckage was scattered over an area of at least 100 metres, with parts of the fuselage landing on the terraces of nearby buildings.

A police source told AFP that American singer-songwriter Oliver Tree was aboard one of the helicopters. The source shared manifests for the two aircraft listing six people, but said formal identification had not yet been completed because the bodies were badly burned.

The same source said the other passengers included a Brazilian music producer, Argentine video director and Argentine YouTuber Gaspar Prim, known online as Gaspi. Oliver Tree, 32, is known for songs including Life Goes On, Miss You and Alien Boy. He has more than 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and his most-played tracks have been streamed more than 700 million times.