Plane crash that killed nine of 12 family members on pheasant hunting trip was due to pilot error

A plane that crashed in 2019 in South Dakota, killing nine family members on a pheasant hunting trip, was dangerously overloaded and caked with ice, factors that contributed to the wreck, a federal report says.

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12, piloted by Kirkland Hansen, the executive of the wellness company Kyani, barely cleared the runway, climbing only 460ft during a blizzard at the Chamberlain airport on November 30 before it stalled and crashed into a cornfield.

The accident killed the pilot, his brother Jim, who was a co-founder of Kyani, their father Jim Hansen Sr; Kirk Hansen’s children, Stockton and Logan; his sons-in-law, Kyle Naylor and Tyson Dennert; and Jim Hansen’s son, Jake, and grandson, Houston.