Eight skydivers died after a small aircraft carrying them crashed in Jämijärvi, Western Finland, this Sunday.
Three people, including the pilot, bailed out and parachuted into safety while most of the passengers, all experienced skydivers, were unable to exit the plane which crashed into a forest and burned badly, after an unknown incident caused the light aircraft to spiral down from an estimated 4 000 meters altitude. Horrific, long seconds to all involved, no doubt.
Your link didn’t work for me. Here is a link to an article with a photo of the plane.
Never heard of a Comp Air 8. Apparently it’s an experimental/kit built plane. Any pilots know more about this type of aircraft?
Thanks, Bumbershoot! I had the link working on preview, but it didn’t last for some reason. Aviation threads here have usually had informative discussion by knowledgeable Dopers. I too would like to hear about the aircraft type, speculation on why most of the people didn’t get out etc. Investigations have just started, so not too much info to work with, yet.
This article has a series of still photos that show the plane spiraling towards the ground while trailing smoke (except I can’t view it here at work; it worked at home so hopefully it will work for some of you here). The plane disappears behind trees before impact.
When a plane is spinning like that it’s very difficult to get to the door. Most of the jumpers were probably stuck to the inside of the airplane and unable to move. The ones who survived were probably right by the door (the pilot had his own door to escape through).
unless it as out of CG the pilot should have been able to maintain control of the plane with an engine failure.