VH-XXX - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come across as unfeeling, and I don't have any more idea about what actually happened, than the next bloke.
I was merely presuming in-air break-up, due to aerobatics, but of course, it could have been any one of a dozen other things, from pilot incapacitation through to simple breakage or jamming of a vital control component.
However; and I don't think I'm alone in this view - I have serious reservations about the wisdom of practising aerobatics with paying pax on board, in an 80+ yr old wood, wire, and fabric aircraft.
Now, I now they undergo exceptionally thorough examinations for COA, but I guess the conservative side of me, tells me that if I want to go aerobatic, it's probably a lot wiser to do so, in a much later model and more durable metal airframe.
Unfortunately, despite the great love for Moths amongst pilots, the truth is, a substantial number of Moths have augered into hard ground or water after practising, or attempt to practise, aerobatics. Maybe a lot of these were pilot error, and maybe a lot weren't, either.
Maybe I'm affected by my earliest memory of aircraft being a Moth that augered in only a few miles from my home in the 1950's, after the pilot apparently tried practising the falling leaf manoeuvre. He didn't survive.