This is a strange one...... From what has been described so far - loss of 6' of the right wing at 25,000 feet and a flat spin apparently with enough force to eject a 11 year old from the aircraft before impact with the ground. Landings shows the plane as a 2006 Pilatus PC12. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/10/teen-thrown-from-plane-before-florida-crash-sheriff-says/?intcmp=obinsite http://www.landings.com/evird.acgi?ref=-&mtd=41&cgi=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fnph-search_nnr&var=0&buf=66&src=_landings%2Fpages%2Fsearch_nnr.html&nnumber=950KA
Is anyone familiar with the PC 12? Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilatus_PC-12) says that there were 7 accidents in the past. First flight was in 1991 and it was introduced in 1994. The first accident listed at wiki was in 2009. That means nothing happened for 15 years and then all accidents happened within 3 years. Isn`t that strange? I have been wondering about this for quite some time, even before the latest accident. Any ideas? Are there any accidents which are not listed at wiki?
Wow. Control or lift surface failure is every pilot's worst fear. Not anything you can do. If true this is going to hurt the PC12 market. God speed to those lost.
To be fair, this is not an indictment of the PC12 as there is a great deal (almost everything) that is unknown. Structural failure of a modern aircraft without compounding circumstances is almost unheard of. Weather, prior impacts or bird strikes to the wing, prior maintenance or lack thereof, corrosion, verification that it truely came off in flight, etc. all still need to be confirmed and I am sure the NTSB will get to the bottom of it.
This plane was just sold recently from an airport minutes from my house to the current buyers. They were a family heavily connected to Kansas State University. A lot of people around here are pretty sad about the whole deal. I don't personally know them, but I've never heard a single negative thing about them ever. So tragic.
From what I've read, it sounds like they may have entered a thunderstorm cell. That's bad news no matter what type of aircraft you are in, especially at altitudes in the mid-20s. I doubt the airplane broke up on it's own, or due to fatigue or something. That would be highly unlikely, especially given the size and experience of the PC-12 fleet.
