On the specific issue of no radio call, there are plenty of emergencies during which a conscious pilot does not transmit a mayday. There is, after all, that ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ list of priorities.
The aircraft involved in this tragedy was less the 20nms from YSCB, in CTA, on primary and secondary RADAR being monitored by ATC. What, precisely, would a mayday call have achieved? Do we think ATC would, absent a mayday or 7700, watch the aircraft suddenly descend, without clearance or any communications, and shrug and assume that there was no problem? The data indicate a descent from around 9,000’ to around 3,000’ – that’s nearly ground level around the area of impact – in about a minute. I doubt whether I’d spend that time transmitting information to ATC, when I know that they are seeing what’s happening anyway.
On the specific issue of "no CAPS", we don’t know that the pilot didn’t try to deploy the CAPS. Maybe the pilot tried but the system malfunctioned. Maybe the CAPS was deployed but at too high a speed. Maybe the CAPS was deployed while the aircraft was inverted or in some unusual attitude that resulted in the parachute lines being fouled by the airframe and the parachute not working properly or at all.
To dive vertically, but keep the speed at most 180kts, and decreasing despite the attitude, well that's just odd.
Yep.