Kansas

on the basis of an incomplete news article. The cited article referred to the pilot parachuting out of the plane, leading people to conclude that he must have abandoned his passengers - and excoriating him accordingly - me too, until I realized there had to be more to the story. So I got to thinking, a C-206 is often used for skydiving, and nobody wears a parachute just to fly one around, so this was probably a skydiving operation. It was hard to tell from the photo whether that was all or part of the plane, but it was obvious that there had been no fire, meaning it probably ran out of fuel. Skydiving planes carry minimum fuel so they can reach jump altitude with a full passenger load as quickly as possible, further evidence that these were skydivers, meaning they all would have had parachutes, and that the plane ran out of fuel before it could get back to the airport. Or maybe there was an in-flight breakup of some part of the aircraft. If they were high enough they could safely jump out.

But sure enough, a quick google led to more news articles stating that everybody had parachuted out. https://www.kctv5.com/2024/05/25/seven-people-survive-plane-crash-near-butler-memorial-airport/ The pilot did not abandon his passengers; on the contrary, he did the right thing by telling them to jump.

So maybe when we see a news item that seems outrageous in some way, we should look a little further before we reach outrageous conclusions?