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Thought, sadly, to be structural failure. http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/EASAAD20190177E.pdf

That's bloody terrible.

Centrifugal loads must've prevented the parachutists from bailing out. No doubt they wouldve tried.

Poor buggers.

There are some reports from eye witnesses that state a parachute was seen to be trailing the aircraft prior to the breakup. This is possible, I had the same thing happen many years ago whilst hour building with a brand new commercial. Our club got a contract to do initial para training for SAS. We were using a C172 with the front right seat and right door removed. Had a trainee sitting on the floor beside me, started fiddling with his chest mounted emergency chute, popped it and out the door it got sucked. Over with my right foot and kicked him out smartly. All ended well, he landed safely and between them they thought it was a great joke, after a little while back on the ground. Young, fit and subjected to a rigorous aptitude testing etc.

We have many here. See NZ have grounded them: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2 ... aland.html

When they say 9 killed. Were they all on board? Because the aircraft only takes 8 including the pilot. Even when we stripped out all the seats on the 206 for para dropping we stuck to the licenced number. Also a parachutist with all his/her kit is heavier than the average pax. Just an observation.

Edit, the article does say 'all 9 on board'.

Not sure when it happened but Airvans are grounded here. Not sure if all or just one company.

Re. my previous comment have the authorities not put this together yet see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GippsAero_GA8_Airvan

Capacity 1 crew, 7 pax but 9 on board were killed. Plus they were all, in my experience, burly guys all with heavy para packs.

"CASA has now received further information that there is no evidence to indicate a potential unsafe condition associated with the aircraft and as such the GA8 can be safely allowed to return to normal operations"

It appears the Airvan 8 has been cleared to to return to the air by Australia's Civil Aviation Authority. New Zealand's civil aviation regulator has also cleared to the aircraft to fly again after The European Union Aviation Safety Agency indicated that the Swedish accident had been caused by aerodynamic loads "beyond those for which the type design is certificated" - as reported by Flight Global.

One wonders what caused the aircraft to be so stressed as to lose a wing?

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ng-459936/

Could be many things - excessive speed with a manoeuvre, excessive rolling 'g' - without an FDR we will probably never know.

Parachute opened in the aircraft maybe. Massive drag load on one side. Maybe one side of the tailplane ripped off, or whole tail off = big negative 'g'
Some parachutists can be overzealous with their pre-jump rig checks and set things off. The jumpmasters where I jumped would check everyone had finished their checks before opening the door, but I've heard others didn't.

I think Mr Fox3WheresMyBanana may be onto something here.

I have an old school mate who is both a pilot and parachute school owner. Once as a jump master he had a student open his chute at the open exit and his canopy wrapped around the wing and pulled the student out of the door. As jump master my friend had to use his knife to cut the chute away as the aircraft became almost uncontrollable as the airspeed reduced to the edge of a stall/spin situation. Fortunately the student had the presence of mind to cut away from his main and successfully deploy his reserve and land safely as the aircraft was recovered and landed safely.

It may very well have been a similar situation in this case with altogether more tragic consequences. As mentioned by another the poster, the aircraft was also definitely carrying one more person than it was certified to carry. Overweight, perhaps out of balance, at altitude, with the drag of a deployed chute, it is highly likely that the aircraft may have have become uncontrollable with the drag of the chute and/or the resulting aircraft attitude resulting in the loss of a wing due to negative g force. A steep spiral dive or spin may have ensured that the other jumpers had no chance of escape due to g loads and the obstructed exit. A very ugly situation indeed!

Many years ago when I did parachute training, one of the things the instructor said was "if your parachute deploys and goes out the door, you go too". For exactly that reason - if you don't, the aircraft is likely to crash and you'll be killed. If you get out quick, everyone else on board has a chance of surviving, and if you're lucky you're high enough that you will too.

Just found out that we are flying into the Delta on one tomorrow. I shall count the pax and check all parachutes stowed.

Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 22, 2019 2:55 pm

Just found out that we are flying into the Delta on one tomorrow. I shall count the pax and check all parachutes stowed.

Do check also please if any ladies carry their own flotation device.