Originally Posted by
markkal
Cannot comment what happened in the flight deck; Although the aircraft was witnessed arriving fast, bouncing a few times, then pointing nose up,hanging there, speed decaying with no corrective action to push nose down. Speed variations, including the low's responsible for the stall spin, have been recorded and made available to the inquiry thanks to mode y transponder.
It unfolded in a LOC full power stall incipient spin dragged to the left due to engine torque. Student was on the side which impacted the water. Running on one magneto should not be a major factor, with a loss of roughly 100 RPM out of 2350. Flaps? they did increase drag, DA 20 with proper nose attitude is still capable to maintain a very marginal positive rate of climb at full power with flaps down at 80 KT IAS. Thanks BigEndBob for mentionning this
There is a patch of flat grass ground on the right side 34 runway extension centerline a 150 meters ahead just before the tiber river at LIRU. But there was no attempt made for a controlled crash landing by lowering the nose.
LOC /stall/spin is responsible for frustratingly constant carnage in general aviation. Perhaps some specific training would help. For sure relegating the issue to refer to the SOP's is of not much use.
RIP.
An Addendum to my above post: Full flaps with full power in a DA20 will result in a strong pitch up tendency as speed builds up, requiring a certain amount of froward stick force and pitch down trim, Awareness and immediate response is paramount. Failure to recognise the degrading situation and to react accordingly is another aggravating factor.