Skydiving King Air crash kills 9 in Hawaii

[Urp99]

Before or after the previous accident? I’m surprised it wasn’t scrapped after that. I’d be extremely hesitant to operate something like that unless the whole thing had been torn down and NDT. Which maybe it was and this is unrelated.

Before, I read it in a skydiving forum where skydivers were discussing a video of the stall/spin. The writer seemed to have knowledge of that particular airplanes fight characteristics, but hey, it's the internet, everybody's an expert!
I agree about not flying it until the whole thing was torn down and NDT'd, there's no way that airframe could've over stressed the right horizontal stabilizer to the point of tearing it off without overstressing something else.

Loss of control three times in a matter of minutes. Got everyone out of the plane safely. Managed to bring most of the plane home.

I’d say this guy was a heck of a pilot!

I hear he also went on to crash a twin Otter. Again, I read it on the internet forums, so don't quote me on that.

 

[GypsyPilot]

Sometime it’s not how bad you screw up, it’s about getting out of trouble.

Lol. Ok Jerry.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Lol. Ok Jerry.

It’s not an incorrect perspective (screw up plenty, recover well and early).

Merely a dangerous one.

 

[BobDDuck]

Eye witness reports are normally less than accurate, but this is the first one I've seen out for this crash.

Steven Tickemyer said he saw the plane take flight, get 75 to 100ft and turn away from the mountain range nearby. He said the plane then started to nosedive and flip belly forward so that it was upside down. The aircraft then flipped again and hit the ground nose first. There was an explosion when it hit the ground.

 

[nibake]

Flip belly forward?

 

[averettpilot]

Who would’ve thunk a skydive pilot wouldn’t do a weight and balance

/s

 

[NovemberEcho]

Flip belly forward?

Only thing I can think of is it rolled over as it dived so the belly of the plane was facing out

 

[nibake]

Yeah. The rolling part sounds like Vmc, the flipping part is probably not the best aerodynamic descriptor.

 

[BlueMoon]

He stated that the airplane "did a couple of downward barrel rolls."

That quote from the NTSB report got my attention. Sounds like he had no idea what a spin even was.

 

[SeanD]

I’m certainly not an expert by any stretch but there is no way I would put 11 adults in that airplane.

 

[averettpilot]

I’m certainly not an expert by any stretch but there is no way I would put 11 adults in that airplane.

Not sure for this aircraft, and not sure of you familiarity with jump planes, but they’re pretty well stripped down so you can put a lot more people than you ordinarily would be able to.

 

[SeanD]

Not sure for this aircraft, and not sure of you familiarity with jump planes, but they’re pretty well stripped down so you can put a lot more people than you ordinarily would be able to.

I was mostly referring to how off center that plane looks. All the weight looks like it is in the front. Maybe it’s the angle the photo was taken.

 

[phill1174]

Sometime it’s not how bad you screw up, it’s about getting out of trouble.

This sounds like something I would’ve told my parents when I was a teenager.

 

[tomokc]

Previous accident report

On July 23, 2016, about 1900 Pacific daylight time, a Beech 65-A90, N256TA, sustained substantial damage following a loss of control while climbing out near the Byron Airport (C83) Byron, California. The commercial pilot and the 14 passengers were not injured. The airplane was registered to N80896 LLC, and operated by Bay Area Skydiving under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the sky-diving flight. The local flight departed C83 about 1851.

WOW - It was carrying 15 when it crashed in 2016!?

 

[FlyingAccountant]

That's at least the second report of someone overstressing the hell out of a king air, ripping off part of the horizontal stab, and living to tell about it. One hell of an airplane.

I seem to remember one that got in trouble a few years ago because of wake turbulence or weather. Completely overstressed the wings but they managed to bring it home. Aircraft was a write off.

Max payload is 2955 or 3305 lbs depending on the engines it’s equipped with. I have to imagine 15 onboard eats all of that up before adding fuel.

 

[BravoHotel]

WOW - It was carrying 15 when it crashed in 2016!?

Then plane didn’t crash in 2016. Came, close however. The pilot should never have put the plane in that situation, but the fact he landed sans right horizontal stab and elevator says something about beechcraft.

On Board Video Shows 2016 Incident with Skydiving Plane > Hawaii Free Press

 

[Inverted]

Internet rumor has this being the same airplane that stalled and ripped half the tail off a few years ago.

It is.