Folks, I’m sipping my coffee and reading about this wild story from Missouri, where a skydiving plane crashed last month, and I’ve got to say, it’s a real head-scratcher. According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, there were “no indications” of any mechanical malfunctions or failures of the engine on the plane. Now, I’m no expert, but that sounds like a pretty good starting point for an investigation, right? I mean, you’d think if something was broken, it would be pretty obvious. But I guess that’s why they call it a preliminary report.
So, let’s get into the details. The plane, a Pacific Aerospace P750, crashed on June 14 at Butler Memorial Airport in Missouri, with 12 people on board, including the pilot. Nine of the victims were experienced skydivers, and the other two passengers were about to go on tandem jumps with instructors. That’s just terrifying, if you ask me. I can only imagine how scary it must have been for those people.
The morning of the accident, the plane had gone up for two skydiving jumps with no problems reported, which is another weird aspect of this story. I mean, if everything was fine during those two jumps, what changed on the third one? The report noted that the plane was filled with 60 gallons of Jet A aircraft fuel just before the final flight, and a post-accident sample from the fuel truck found no sediment or debris present. Okay, so the fuel seems to be okay, that’s a good thing, I suppose.
Now, here’s where things get really strange. When the plane took off for the last time, it gradually turned to the left, but continued to turn until both wings eventually became perpendicular to the ground. I’m no pilot, but that sounds like a pretty unusual maneuver to me. The plane crashed nose-first into a field about 300 yards from the runway and caught fire. I can only imagine how horrific that must have been for the people on the ground.
The post-accident review also showed that the plane was not overweight when it crashed and met the balance limitations, which is another box checked, I suppose. The company that operated the flight reported to the NTSB that it did not have any previous concerns with the pilot, calling him “safety oriented” and “conservative with his decision making as a jump pilot.” That’s good to know, I guess, but it doesn’t really explain what happened.
The plane was not equipped with a voice or data recorder, as it was not required, which seems like a bit of an oversight to me. I mean, wouldn’t that be helpful in figuring out what went wrong? The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and the NTSB could take one to two years to release its final report. Well, I’ll be keeping an eye on this story, that’s for sure.
In conclusion, this whole story is just a big mystery, and I’m not sure we’ll ever know exactly what happened. But hey, at least the investigation is underway, and maybe someday we’ll get some answers. Until then, I’ll just be over here, sipping my coffee and wondering what really went down in Missouri. And who knows, maybe someday we’ll have planes with better safety features, and this kind of thing won’t happen again. A guy can dream, right?
Armchair patriot. Believes in the free market, cold beer, and that there’s always a guy named George behind every CNN segment.
Former remote-throwing champion turned #1 couch commentator on liberal panic in the media. Born in Texas (or so his mug says), he earned a degree in Fake Newsology & Beer Philosophy from YouTube University.
