A BUS carrying Texas high school band members who were returning from a spring break trip to Disney World has plunged into a ravine before dawn on Tuesday in Alabama, killing one person and injuring many others.

First responders used ropes to rappel down a 15-metre ravine in the middle of an interstate highway to reach them, and then use equipment to cut out the victims, said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack, who confirmed the fatality.

According to ABC 7, an Alabama state trooper said the driver of the bus was the person killed.

About 45 young people from Channelview High School were on board, and all of them were brought to 10 hospitals in Alabama and Florida, either by helicopter or ambulance, he said.

One image posted on the band’s Facebook page hours before the crash showed a large group posing outside Disney World.

The bus entered the median and then plunged into the ravine at about 5:30am, the sheriff said. It wasn’t immediately clear why.

Rescuers used every piece of equipment on every truck to reach them, Sheriff Mack said: “This is what we call an all-out.”

An image of the wreckage shows the crumpled bus landed on its side, far below the pavement. The highway was closed down in both directions as the injured were flown to hospital emergency rooms in Alabama and Florida, plus a freestanding emergency room in a rural location, said Chris Elliott, a Baldwin County commissioner who helped out at the emergency management centre following the crash.

“Everybody is being transferred to a hospital to at least be checked out,” said Mr Elliott.

Channelview independent School District spokesman Mark Kramer confirmed that the charter bus was carrying Channelview High School band members.

Mr Kramer’s statement said the district had only limited details in the immediate aftermath and was in contact with law enforcement in Alabama to get more information.

An official with the bus charter company, First Class Tours of Houston, said the company was working on a statement.