[SmartCat]

GippsAero Airvan, a small utility aircraft was involved in a crash in Sweden. All 9 passengers (pilot + skydivers) onboard the aircraft died in the crash.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-nine-on-board

Amateur video of plane crash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjQIA3yvDuM

GippsAero is an Australian utility aircraft manufacturer, but owned by Mahindra Group. After the crash, Australia and New Zealand have grounded all Airvan aircraft
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114...rash-in-sweden

Promotional video of Airvan 8 on Mahindra Aerospace Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=vGHvL_zY6uE

More information about the aircraft involved in the crash (Wiki link):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GippsAero_GA8_Airvan

[V.Narayan]

It will be interesting to see what the investigation reveals. Slow planes like these with low aspect ratio wings (ratio of wingspan to width of a wing) are designed to be able to glide with nose dipped even if the engine fails. Even jet airliners can do it though that needs some serious flying skill. So a straight vertical drop indicates something sudden and catastrophic.

[libranof1987]

Quite a sad incident, especially since going up in the airplane is not the most dangerous aspect during skydiving. What makes this worse is, this must have happened at an altitude at which skydivers couldn't/didn't consider it feasible to just jump out and deploy parachutes.

On a sidenote, I had no idea Mahindra owned an aircraft company. Doesn't seem like they market it as much as they do their other businesses.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

On a sidenote, I had no idea Mahindra owned an aircraft company. Doesn't seem like they market it as much as they do their other businesses.

They also make and sell mini-Yachts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8L3Lcco1pE

Websites:

https://www.mahindraodyssea.com/ (boats)
https://www.mahindraaerospace.com/ (aircraft)

[Sutripta]

Seeing the video one really understands the terms 'fell out of the sky', and 'dropped like a stone'.
Losing nine persons in a small plane crash is quite high.

I don't think (might be wrong) small noncommercial planes have black boxes, or CVR. So accident report might take some time.

Regards
Sutripta

[V.Narayan]

While any speculation is open to question there are two occurences I can think of that would cause a small slow aircraft to plummet at virtually 90 degrees straight down all of a sudden - (1) if it had only a single pilot at the controls and he/she literally died at the controls fell on the yoke {which would push the nose down completely} and a few seconds later before anyone could realize what was happening the machine crashes into the ground. (2) a wing literally breaking off in flight. In a faster aircraft a tail plane breaking off can be comparably catastrophic. But for a small plane with a lightly loaded wing {i.e. in layman's terms a wing with lots of redundant capacity for lift} it would need a wing to break off close to the roots. If it is the latter then that is as serious as it gets.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

a wing literally breaking off in flight. In a faster aircraft a tail plane breaking off can be comparably catastrophic. But for a small plane with a lightly loaded wing {i.e. in layman's terms a wing with lots of redundant capacity for lift} it would need a wing to break off close to the roots. If it is the latter then that is as serious as it gets.

That's what civil aviation authority of Australia and New Zealand suspects. That's why all aircraft have been grounded.
https://news.aviation-safety.net/201...ent-in-sweden/

Indications are that the aircraft, at 4000 meters altitude, suffered structural failure. Early reports are that a wing may have detached prior to the accident, but, at this time, the root cause of the accident cannot be confirmed.

[Sutripta]

Shouldn't a wing breaking off cause the aircraft to corkscrew downwards? Airflow over one wing causing unbalanced forces.

Regards
Sutripta

[himanshugoswami]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

More information about the aircraft involved in the crash (Wiki link):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GippsAero_GA8_Airvan

Attachment 1897218

The specs say the capacity is 8 (1+7), but the casualties in the accident is 9, so could this be a case of overloading?

[arijitkanrar]

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

The specs say the capacity is 8 (1+7), but the casualties in the accident is 9, so could this be a case of overloading?

That's the seating capacity. Its different from the Max Take-Off Weight or the allowed take-off weight which depends on the flying conditions, weather etc.
And I don't think an overloaded aircraft should drop like that unless there is a structural failure. Experts please correct me if I'm wrong.
An overloaded aircraft depending on how much its overloaded might be unable to get airborne, unable to gain altitude or generally fly very sluggish but it will not fall out of the sky at 90 degrees vertical.

[skanchan95]

What if there was pitch control failure because of a jammed elevator like what happened to Alaska Airlines Flight 261?

Those who have watched Nat Geo's Air Crash Investigations episodes would remember this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgtqbcC6kd0

The ill-fated MD-83's horizontal stabilizer got jammed forcing it to go into near vertical dive, from which the pilots were able to recover the first time. But the horizontal stabilizer failed completely some time later causing the MD-83 to go into its 2nd vertical and fatal dive from which there was no way to recover.

Wonder if something similar happened in this case. Will a light aircraft go into a nose dive just like a heavier jet powered aircraft it will it behave differently in case of a jammed elevator or failure?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

What if there was pitch control failure because of a jammed elevator like what happened to Alaska Airlines Flight 261?

Wonder if something similar happened in this case. Will a light aircraft go into a nose dive just like a heavier jet powered aircraft it will it behave differently in case of a jammed elevator or failure?

This is a viable possibility. Something similar happened with Air Moorea's Twin Otter in 2007 at Tahiti. In that case though it was elevator control cables that snapped and failed. In a very light aircraft it can be possible for the pilots physical arm strength to counter act the aerodynamic force of a misbehaving elevator or tail rudder * but it would depend on the exact circumstances of the jamming or snapping and what he could manage with the ailerons.

*Jeroen could opine on this. I have no experience with light aircraft.

Alec Ibay's documentary on that earlier crash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2b0fcSrtas

[Jeroen]

Jamming and or snapping of flight controls is certainly possible and we have seen a number of very unfortunate and fatal accidents with light aircraft.

Flight controls on light aircraft are very simple. All mechanical. Just linkages, wires and pulleys. When things wear, don't get maintained and or inspected at some point in time it will snap due to simple mechanical failure.

Jamming is known to happen for a variety of reasons. Due to poor maintenance things might end up getting stuck. Something gets stuck in the linkages/wires. E.g. some loose items in the cockpit fall on the floor.

Also, we have seen numerous incident and accidents where the various mechanical chokes were not removed prior to flight. The control surfaces on small planes often get fixed in place whilst the plane is parked. You do not want them flapping about. So there are special devices, sort of wedges, you slide on the elevator, rudder etc to lock them. Part of the Pre-flight checks during the walk around is to remove them. Part of the take off check list is to ensure all flight controls have full free movement. People forget, are too casual and almost every year we see somebody taking off with locked controls.

Jeroen