Originally Posted by
capngrog
DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMERDISCLAIMER I am not an expert on much of anything that really matters and am not current on any aircraft type.
A couple of decades ago, I was a designated Party to an NTSB investigation into the crash of a Cessna 205. The aircraft entered a spin at approximately 3,000 ft. AGL.This spin developed into a flat spin with a nearly vertical descent into a cultivated farm field.All aboard the aircraft were killed by the impact, and an ensuing fire consumed most of the fuselage.The wreckage array of the Laser DC-3 reminds me very much of the array of the wreckage of the C-205.Judging from the undisturbed crop rows in the immediate vicinity of the crash site, there was almost no lateral movement of the C-205 at impact.The photos of the DC-3 crash site reveal little or no terrain disturbance beyond the wreckage itself, indicating a vertical descent.Lack of longitudinal crushing of the fuselage, nacelles and wings indicate to me that the DC-3 impacted in a flat attitude.
The only thing I can think of that would cause a DC-3 to enter a flat spin on approach to landing would be the loss of an engine and the inability to feather the prop of the dead engine. This is what wrench1 reported in his Post #31 above.A windmilling prop offers much more drag than a feathered one, so VMC with a windmilling prop would be significantly higher than that with a feathered prop.Combine that with the likelihood that the DC-3 PF (Pilot Flying) was carrying a lot of power on the good engine, just to stay in the air, sets them up for tragedy.As Eric Janson points out in his Post #32 above, a controlled descent into terrain would have been possible if power to the good engine had been quickly cut.I have less than 10 hours in the DC-3; therefore, I know next to nothing about the airplane, but the old “Goon” (“Gooney Bird”) is a solid airplane with no reputation of biting the pilots in the butt by being overly touchy.I think that the instinct of most pilots is to keep the airplane in the air, but the inability to feather a prop of a twin engine airplane is a game changer.
The way the wreckage sits when viewed in the ground level photo, indicates to me that the DC-3 was in a right-hand flat spin when it impacted, indicating that it was the No. 2 engine that failed (speculation on my part).
I like your asessment. Had a friend who fatally crashed a seneca in the Haition mountains. All like you described All six anboard were recovered. All had legs seperated from their body, and five were decapitated from the severe vertical impact.
Left throttle mixture and prop in shutdownwn position, right hand throttle bend outward to the right at about mid position...pilots hand on impact forced the bend. While bodies in this DC 3 are charred by fire, they will still give us additional cues. I have always loved radials, was on DC 6 and 7's in Central America.