Does anybody know (as opposed to suspect) the amount of damage an exploding O2 bottle would do?
Van
My hobby is scuba diving! the compressed air bottles are pressurised to 2000 ibs per sq inch and I have seen some big blunders with bottles falling a few feet onto hard conrete.
They are like aviation bottles tested and internally inspected for corrosion and contamination but have a large margin for safety built in.
It is possible but unlikely that this had anything to do with an exploding oxygen bottle. Why have one if you have a full aircraft of PAX who would also need oxygen?
This incident could have involved engine failure or double engine failure either man made or running out of fuel?
Remember the Baron 55 is a quirky aircraft with all the levers (throttle,prop, and mixture painted black so easy to confuse.
Its more likely he ran out of fuel and as you said tried to pan it onto a mountain side but then why a mountain side why not just take to the valley no matter how rough the base of the valley looks?
Its all guesswork by all of us.
Pace