Originally Posted by
Squawk7700
I’ve been thinking the same thing. It’s one of the older examples out there. Turbulence can cause all of sorts of stresses. The Gen 1 cirrus does not have detachable wings, which is the reason why until later on that they were all flown to Australia from the USA, so it sounds unlikely that a wing fell off. The tail section (elevator?) is a different story, but this would surely be the first ever based on previous readings. Short of a spin or missing tail section, there aren’t that many ways to get a 1.5t aircraft from that altitude to the ground in such a short space of time.
Hmm, when I was flying meat bombers one big danger was if a chute got tangled in the tailplane. That's why we had to wear parachutes as well. Just a thought.
Could a chute deploy in normal flight and get tangled in the tail?