The Pilatus PC6, operated by the Cascais-based air company AeroVip, came down a short while after taking off from the Figueira de Cavaleiros Aerodrome (LPFC), in Canhestros, Beja, for a training lesson.
It was carrying a group of seven skydivers plus the pilot when it ran into trouble at around 7,000 feet, approximately halfway into its climb.
The report by Portugal’s air safety investigation bureau, the GPIAA, revealed that “according to the witness of one of the skydivers in the group, a noise of cracking/ripping of the metal began to be heard, and the aircraft was subjected to an instantaneous nose-up turn and suddenly, all the rear structure disintegrated.”
It went on to explain how “some occupants were pushed against the structure of the aircraft before they were thrown out” and managed to open their parachutes.
Three of the skydivers were reportedly unconscious when they were projected out of the stricken plane, and only survived thanks to the automatic opening of their emergency parachutes.
All seven jumpers survived the terrifying ordeal, although two suffered serious injuries, but tragically the 27-year-old Belgian pilot was killed in the crash and the plane was completely destroyed.
“The pilot was expelled into the air through the remainder of the cockpit and crashed about 400 metres from the impact site of the cabin, without having time to trigger his parachute”, the GPIAA’s report concludes.
It added that, according to witnesses on the ground, “at the time of disintegration the aircraft began to spin on its own axis, dispersing components in a wooded area of a private property.”
An investigation is ongoing to establish what caused the plane to disintegrate.