Originally Posted by
pchapman
You got a better idea? Ok, it is a turbine aircraft with good altitude performance, so maybe that's only a small difference in altitude, fair enough.
The pilot report stated, "The stall and subsequent spin happened when we allowed too many jumpers on the outside step, " ... but that doesn't say whether it was "more than usual" or just "too much for the given conditions".
Because it was a special event, maybe the number of people for that group was larger than usual or more focused than usual in keeping tightly packed near the doorway -- while at the same time perhaps the DZ's rules on the number of floaters wasn't that well established or perhaps communicated.
But it doesn't matter in the end too much here to us out on the internet. The drop zone would know "what factor changed", why a normal everyday jump run procedure didn't work this particular time.
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16 or 13K doesn’t really matter.”
Aren’t you required to use oxygen above a certain altitude? At least for the pilot.
Inadequate oxygen can lead to stupid decisions by both the pilot and the passengers/skydivers, especially as the higher you fly, the longer it takes to get to altitude, so the more time you spend with inadequate oxygen, especially if you are used to the amount of oxygen available at sea level and your body is not acclimated to low oxygen conditions.
And obviously a plane is far more likely to lose lift and stall the higher you fly, as the air thins and lift is reduced.