From here
I don’t know if it has been mentioned in EuroGA but in the summer of 2021 there was another paradropping accident in Sweden. A DHC2 with 8 parajumpers crashed soon after takeoff from Örebro (ESOE) airport with everyone onboard killed. Just as in the Umeå case, this aircraft was loaded with CG behind the aft limit.
The accident report was published today.
In summary (my translation):
“Control of the aircraft was probably lost when the wing flaps were retracted in a situation where the stick forces were high due to an abnormal elevator trim position and the aircraft was unstable due to both the trim position and the CG being behind the aft limit. The low altitude meant that control of the aircraft could not be regained.
The cause of the accident was normalisation of deviance in the operation, resulting in a safety margins too small for safe flight.”
@Peter, can you change the topic to “DHC2 at Örebro”?
[ done ]
What I find a bit strange is that there’s no analysis (if I read svenska correctly) on whether having the parachutists restrained would have helped at all. It’s possible it would have had no impact, but to me (who is used to having restraints mandated from 0 to 1500 feet AGL as a skydiver), it seems like it could both affect a stall/near-stall situation by preventing the parachutists from sliding backwards within the cabin, AND helped make the crash more survivable.
There is a long tradition in paradropping that things get pushed to the limit – technically and legally. The pressure to make money fast is large. They go up and down as quickly as they can. Some pilots can be on the ground before the parachutists.
