Skydiving / Paratroopers

At 1448 hrs, the pilot took off from Gransee Special Airfield with the Cessna 208 Caravan to a commercial flight in accordance with visual flight rules. On board were the pilot and 15 skydivers, which were dropped at flight level 130. On this day, the pilot had already conducted three flights dropping skydivers with a total flight time of 48 min. After having dropped the skydivers during the fourth flight, the airplane was last captured by the radar at 1505:49 hrs, during approach to land at the airfield, close to the accident site at about 550 ft AMSL. At the time, ground speed was 168 kt and heading 330°. The Flugleiter stated that he had observed the last phase of the approach. The airplane had been in a left-hand turn with a bank angle of up to 90° close to the ground. He assumed that the pilot might have “overshot” the extended centre line of runway 29 when he entered the final approach coming from the south. Then the airplane had vanished behind the trees. The pilot did not transmit an emergency call. The Flugleiter also stated that with the previous flight he had witnessed a similar manoeuvre. The radar recording of the third flight ended at 1417:54 hrs with a recorded altitude of about 1,400 ft AGL. At the time, ground speed was 168 kt and heading 355°. During both flights the skydivers had been dropped at flight level 130 at a heading of about 300° south of the airfield. After dropping the skydivers, at 1415:07 hrs and at 1502:52 hrs, respectively, the airplane entered a descent with a very high rate of descent and flew in a wide left-hand turn back to the airfield. During the third flight a right-left-hand turn with bank angles of about 50° to 60° occurred during descent.

The crew was completing a local skydiving mission in the region of Fakhrabad, about 30 km southwest of Dushanbe. After eight skydivers departed the cabin, the crew was returning to Fakhrabad Airfield when, on final approach, the airplane crashed in unknown circumstances. The copilot was seriously injured and the captain was killed.

The purpose of the flight was to drop eight parachutists from flight level 130 (an altitude of 13,000 feet, approximately 4,000 metres). The load sheet that the pilot received did not contain any information about the individual weights of the parachutists or the total mass of the load. The pilot could thus not, with any help from the load sheet, check or make his own calculation of mass and balance before the flight. The aeroplane was approaching the airport and, at 14:05 hrs, the pilot requested permission to drop the parachutists slightly higher because of clouds. The airspeed was decreasing in conjunction with the aeroplane’s approach to the airport. Just over a kilometre from the airport where the jump point was located, the aeroplane suddenly changed direction to the left and began descending rapidly in almost the opposite direction. The aeroplane then travelled just under one kilometre at the same time as it descended 1,500 metres, which is a dive angle of over 45 degrees. The aeroplane broke up in the air as both the airspeed and the g-forces exceeded the permitted values for the aeroplane. From an altitude of 2,000 metres, the aeroplane fell almost vertically with a descent velocity of around 60 m/s. The fact that no one was able to get out and save themselves using their parachute was probably due to the g-forces and the rotations that occurred. All those on board remained in the aeroplane and died immediately upon impact.

On June 21, 2019, about 1822 Hawaii-Aleutian standard time, a Beech King Air 65-A90 airplane, N256TA, impacted terrain after takeoff from Dillingham Airfield (HDH), Mokuleia, Hawaii. The pilot and 10 passengers were fatally injured, and the airplane was destroyed. The airplane was owned by N80896 LLC and was operated by Oahu Parachute Center (OPC) LLC under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 as a local parachute jump (skydiving) flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. OPC had scheduled five parachute jump flights on the day of the accident and referred to the third through fifth flights of the day as “sunset” flights because they occurred during the late afternoon and early evening. The accident occurred during the fourth flight. The accident pilot was the pilot-in-command (PIC) for each of the OPC flights that departed on the day of the accident. The pilot and 8 of the 10 passengers initially boarded the airplane. These eight passengers comprised three OPC tandem parachute instructors, three passenger parachutists, and two OPC parachutists performing camera operator functions. The pilot began to taxi the airplane from OPC’s location on the airport. According to a witness (an OPC tandem instructor who was not aboard the accident flight), the two other passengers—solo parachutists who had been on the previous skydiving flight and were late additions to the accident flight—“ran out to the airplane and were loaded up at the last minute.” The pilot taxied the airplane to runway 8 about 1820, and the airplane departed about 1822. According to multiple witnesses, after the airplane lifted off, it banked to the left, rolled inverted, and descended to the ground. One witness stated that, before impact, the airplane appeared to be intact and that there were no unusual noises or smoke coming from the airplane. A security camera video showed that the airplane was inverted in a 45° nose-down attitude at the time of impact. The airplane impacted a grass and dirt area about 630 ft northeast of the departure end of the runway, and a postcrash fire ensued. The airplane was not equipped, and was not required to be equipped, with a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder. The accident flight was not detected by radar at the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Hawaii Control Facility, which was the air traffic control (ATC) facility with jurisdiction of the airspace over HDH. The FAA found no audio communications between the accident airplane and ATC on the day of the accident.

Following an uneventful paratroopers mission over the area of Biskra, the crew was returning to Biskra-Mohamed Khider Airport. On final approach, the airplane stalled and crashed few hundre metres short of runway, coming to rest broken in two. All nine crew members were injured and the aircraft was destroyed. A day later, one of the survivor died from his injuries.

The Cessna 208B aircraft took off from Runway 27 at Clonbullogue Airfield (EICL), Co. Offaly at approximately 13.14 hrs. On board were the Pilot and a Passenger (a child), who were seated in the cockpit, and 16 skydivers, who occupied the main cabin. The skydivers jumped from the aircraft, as planned, when the aircraft was overhead EICL at an altitude of approximately 13,000 feet. When the aircraft was returning to the airfield, the Pilot advised by radio that he was on ‘left base’ (the flight leg which precedes the approach leg and which is normally approximately perpendicular to the extended centreline of the runway). No further radio transmissions were received. A short while later, it was established that the aircraft had impacted nose-down into a forested peat bog at Ballaghassan, Co. Offaly, approximately 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 kilometres) to the north-west of EICL. The aircraft was destroyed. There was no fire. The Pilot and Passenger were fatally injured.

The pilot of the twin-engine, turbine-powered airplane reported that, while providing flights for skydivers throughout the day, he had a potential new hire pilot flying with him in the right seat. He added that, on the eighth flight of the day, the new pilot was flying during the approach and "approximately 200 feet south from the threshold of [runway] 15 at approximately 15 feet AGL [above ground level] the bottom violently and unexpectedly dropped out. [He] believe[d] some kind of wind shear caused the aircraft [to] slam onto [the] runway and bounce into the air at a 45 to 60-degree bank angle to the right." The prospective pilot then said, "you got it." The pilot took control of the airplane and initiated a go-around by increasing power, which aggravated the "off runway heading." The right wing contacted the ground, the airplane exited the runway to the right and impacted a fuel truck, and the right wing separated from the airplane. The impact caused the pilot to unintentionally add max power, and the airplane, with only the left engine functioning, ground looped to the right, coming to rest nose down.

The pilot, sole on board, was returning to Cecina Airfield following a skydiving flight in the area. After touchdown on a grassy area, the single engine aircraft veered to the left, impacted a drainage ditch and came to rest. The pilot escaped uninjured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On the afternoon of the 19th of June 2016 a Pilatus PC-6 aircraft, German registration DFSCB, took off from the airfield of Figueira dos Cavaleiros (LPFC) for its 17th launch of skydivers that day. On this flight there were 8 persons on board: 1 pilot, 5 skydivers and 2 passengers that were jumping in tandem with two of the skydivers. The meteorology featured a day with clear sky, the wind blew from 040° with 10 kt and the air temperature was around 32° C. The Pilatus took off for a local skydiving training flight and started a climb to an altitude of 14.500 ft. During the initial climb at a rate of 1.000 feet per minute, when crossing 7.000 feet above mean sea level, according to some of the skydivers in the group, a sound similar to the cracking/ripping of a metal structure was heard, and simultaneously the aircraft pitched up to a high nose-up attitude while yawing to the right, causing a severe flight instability. Suddenly, the entire rear fuselage structure disintegrated. According to the reports, some occupants were pushed against the structure of the aircraft before they were thrown outside. During the following seconds the skydivers who did not suffer serious injuries, managed to jump out of the plane and triggered their parachutes. Two of them were seriously injured before leaving the aircraft, their emergency parachutes being automatically deployed by the barometric opening mechanism. As a result, the disintegration of the remaining aircraft parts continued until the impact with the ground. Fragments of the aircraft parts were found over a length of approximately 1.500 meters and a width of about 500 meters and were widely dispersed, with an alignment with the direction of flight from west to east. The pilot was thrown out of the remains of the cockpit and hit the ground at about 400 meters from the impact site of the cabin. He did not trigger his parachute and it was not, nor is it a procedure to be equipped with an emergency parachute with an automatic barometric opening mechanism.

The aircraft, operated by Skydive Kalifornia (aka Skydive Toscana) was involved in a local skydiving flight from Cecina Airfield. When the aircraft reached the assigned altitude, six of the seven skydivers bailed out. When the seventh skydiver elected to jump, his auxiliary parachute accidentally opened while the skydiver was still in the cabin. He was sucked outside and collided with the right horizontal stabilizer that later detached. The aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in a field. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and both pilots were killed. There was no fire. All seven skydivers were uninjured.