Pilatus porter spinning out of control

[Guest cbuchner1]

Told with an overly sensationalized tone, nevertheless this could be interesting for aviation interested folks like us.http://www.trutv.com/video/most-daring/lea...?link=truTVshlkWhat could have gone wrong here, why would the plane go into such a spin and why would the pilot be unable to recover from it?Christian

[briansommers 74]

Told with an overly sensationalized tone, nevertheless this could be interesting for aviation interested folks like us.http://www.trutv.com/video/most-daring/lea...?link=truTVshlkWhat could have gone wrong here, why would the plane go into such a spin and why would the pilot be unable to recover from it?Christian

looks like a pc6?I'm still shaking after watching that!

[Chock 17,769]

I'm guessing that the combination of two people on the underside of the wing prior to jumping and and more in the cabin on the other side caused it to bank and yaw, with the skydivers in the doorway breaking up the low pressure area under the up going wing, stalling that wing and making the aircraft start to autorotate off an upgoing, rather than a downgoing wing. I say that because it looks like the aircraft was already inverted before the first guys get out.With a lot of weight in the back and the thing inverted and spinning, it's probable that there was not enough airflow over the elevators to enable the possibility to rectify the situation, as it may have effectively been in an inverted deep stall. There is also the possibility that the pilot could not get to the controls, which might have happened if he was not tightly strapped in and being thrown around, or even too tightly strapped in and unable to reach them, and if that was the case, he would be unable to stop the autorotation with the application of some rudder.I did actually make a sort of related similar mistake once when flying a single seater for the first time; I had been given a bunch of advice from various pilots who had flown it, telling me to watch out for various quirks, and so, feeling slightly apprehensive, I strapped myself in really tight, so tight in fact that I could not reach the panel and several of the controls. Fortunately although I had taken off, I was not in a spin when I discovered that - I found out when I tried to adjust the radio!If you are not used to spinning, it can be very disorientating, and some aircraft are harder than others to get out of a spin, with some effectively being 'unrecoverable' if they go into an inverted spin. Most aircraft will actually fly themselves out of a 'regular' spin if you give them a chance, but if you apply the wrong control inputs, you can actually make matters very much worse, and although one would assume a pilot who is dropping skydivers would be relatively experienced and know how to effect a recovery, there are some pilots out there who have never even done a spin, let alone practiced recovering from them.You can see how much you get thrown about if not strapped in properly on that footage by the difficulties the skydivers are having simply trying to get to the door. Personally, I hope my parachute remains an expensive seat cushion. I tried a parachute jump once, as i figured I'd better know how to use the things since I do wear one - and I didn't like it!Al

[dmaher 0]

I think one possibility is the pilot didn