Posted on 06/22/2019 3:04:26 AM PDT by Jyotishi
Nine people died when a small, twin-engine aircraft used by skydivers crashed Friday evening near Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, officials said.
Family members of the skydivers were reportedly not far from the site when the crash happened.
The mangled remains of the King Air plane were seen in a photo posted by a local newspaper and distributed by the Associated Press.
"In my 44 years as a firefighter in Hawaii, this is the most tragic incident that we've had," Honolulu Fire Chief Manuel Neves told the Star-Advertiser, describing the incident.
"In my 44 years as a firefighter in Hawaii, this is the most tragic incident that we've had."
-- Chief Manuel Neves, Honolulu Fire Department
Hawaii's Department of Transportation confirmed on Twitter that the plane, a type of American-built small utility aircraft, had nine people aboard when it crashed. No survivors were expected to be found.
Police said the plane was fully engulfed in flames when first-responders arrived, Hawaii News Now reported. Smoke from the crash site could reportedly be seen for miles.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
A King Air is an expensive twin turboprop, and an excellent aircraft. It’s not a small utility aircraft.
Any former officials with ties to Obama’s birth certificate onboard? (again)
CC
My thought too.
Here’s a local article with a bit more information:
Thanks. With video:
Witness said it was hard to see crash knowing people lost their lives
Must have been unexpected…I assume skydivers all died with their parachutes on.
Must have been a sudden plunge for no skydivers to have jumped. I know they were probably not prepared to jump but hey.......
The plane crashed near the field, which makes me think it happened during takeoff or very shortly afterward. There might well have been insufficient time and altitude for anyone to get out and open a chute.
In my (not very extensive) skydiving experience, the ride up was the part when I worried most. It was always a relief to get out of the plane.
Hate to admit, that was my first thought.
How is it that the skydivers didn’t jump out?
In FAA aircraft classification, ‘utility’ is a catagory. That’s what the article refers to. I have flown jumpers for many years as a part time hobby since leaving military service. The aircraft I fly for that are utility aircraft, usually less than 20 passengers.
Probably a good guess that it was an aircraft problem on the takeoff or early climb out.
Thanks for the clarification.
Even with a parachute, you need at least 1000 feet to make an emergency exit for experienced jumpers (preferably more) and at least 2000 feet for tandem skydivers. If you don’t have that, the procedure is to stay seatbelted in and land with the plane. The king Air is a twin engine, not the easiest of twins to fly, configured for skydiving it can have challenging CG characteristics between flight and takeoff/landing configuration, and if you lose one engine, it’s worse than having no engines, as the plane will yaw yard towards the dead engine. Sets up a stall if you don’t respond correctly and immediately. I don’t know that’s what happened but these are things you have to be prepared to handle.
See 15.
Yard = hard
Eyewitness reports were the plane took off then came back and eyewitness could see the pilot’s face, as he made his approach and she indicated she could sense something was wrong.
FAA reported 9 souls lost, 7 of which were employees of the skydiving firm and 2 passengers.
TV cameras show the debris adjacent an airfield lateral fenceline. Hard to figure out how it crashed.
Thanks for the additional information.
first thought here as well
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