Originally Posted by
NZFlyingKiwi
It's a bit hard to imagine incapacitation leading to that sort of flight profile unless it was a seizure or something causing a total lockup on the controls. I'd think even with someone slumped over the stick (which doesn't seem very likely with a Cirrus sidestick anyway) the aerodynamic forces involved would eventually shallow the descent out a bit. You would assume he would have shown the kids how to operate the parachute too in case he suddenly keeled over.
I've been thinking the same. The profile looks almost like a bomb dropped from level flight and hard to fathom that something with wings would sustain that on its own. However the rate of descent only reaches 120 or so mph, so some sort of drag is stopping it from going faster. Is it possible the chute partially deployed and fouled the controls? As someone else has hinted at the other option for that sort of profile is not something we want to hear.