Originally Posted by
Checkboard
Autopilot on VS climb. Heart attack or similar. Young children not understanding anything about the aircraft or 'chute. Stall. Descent to terrain.
Assuming his Cirrus was fitted with (eg) an STEC 55 - the pilot would have had to have engaged a roll mode first - heading, nav or similar; however looking at Flightaware track log, either it was extremely bumpy at the altitude he was flying, with heading fluctuations left and right or, more likely, the pilot was hand flying - compare the track log with the previous flight where you can see the pilot was definitely using his autopilot - hardly any fluctuation in heading at all.
Ice certainly a possibility but if the plane had iced up, was descending uncontrollably, I would have expected the pilot to pull the chute - assuming he was capable of doing so. I don't believe that the pilot would have "forgotten" the chute because when I owned a Cirrus, we always brought CAPS into our decision making process, even when practicing emergencies. And if you're transporting your grandchildren, you'll be even less inclined to take risks, so I believe the pilot was incapacitated, the plane simply stalled whilst iced up.
Unfortunately if the pilot is incapacitated, this meant that most likely a small boy aged 11 was sitting in the front seat, I'm not so sure he could have reached, certainly not have pulled with the force required, the parachute, especially if the aircraft was spinning.....
My thoughts go out to the families.....