No one was killed in the crash of Twin Otter jump plane carrying 20 people at Tullahoma Regional Airport in Tennessee on Sunday. Authorities said the crash occurred about 12:15 p.m. and some people were taken by air ambulance to a local hospital. Local media reports said two people were critically injured and two others had less serious injuries. Others were treated at the scene. Witnesses said the plane clipped a tree shortly after takeoff and went down in a field near the airport. The video below from the Tennessee Highway Patrol shows a tailless fuselage missing one wing with parts resting against a tree a few hundred feet away.
The airplane (N166DH) was built by De Havilland in Toronto in 1967 and has had dozens of owners. It was purchased by the current owner, Randigo LLC, registered in Delaware in 2019. The name of the skydiving company operating it was not released. The plane was involved in a previous accident at Cedartown, Georgia, in October of 2019 when it collided with a Panzl S-330 aerobatic plane on the runway at Cedartown-Polk County Airport. It was repaired and returned to service later that month.
Let’s hope all those who were injured recover quickly. As someone who has flown jumpers for years, I do have some opinions on what may have happened that I will keep to myself for now. One thing I will say is based on what I see in the photos on this article, this accident will make for an interesting NTSB final report!
Ummm … I looked up the Twin Otter … it says it can carry 19 pax. And these folks all had chutes with 'em. The end.
Dozens of owners. I was flying a 182RG that’s only on it’s 2nd owner. I’m not sure that i would want to go up in an aircraft that’s been tossed around like a rental vehicle shuttle fleet unit…
20 skydivers+20 chutes -seats -stripped out interior.
Hmmmm. Overloaded by one person. The skydiving systems weight around 25 lbs each. Roughly offset by the removed seats. The plane should have been able to handle that. My guess is something else went wrong. Perhaps power, or too much fuel, or improper weight distribution.
Jump Otters are stripped of all interior stuff to include carpets plastics, and seat belts. They regularly carry more than 19 pax with all that weight removed
The twin otters that I have jumped from usually carry 22 skydivers, although I have been on loads that had 24. Whether the 24 skydiver loads were legal, I don’t know. I never flew those.
Unless parallax is deceiving me, it appears the right prop is feathered. Good job by the crew to fly it as far into the crash as possible and remarkable that everyone survived, especially all the unsecured skydivers. Tough bird.
Altitude of the airport is 1,084’ MSL and the temps were in the 80’s. Density Altitude + a heavy load? Did they use one of the 5,000’ runways or were they operating off of grass on the 2,700’ runway? Lots of questions to answer.
Where does it say that they were unsecured? FAA regs require belts during takeoffs, landings, and ground ops.
And yes, this applies to jump planes as well any.
Engine failure, couldn’t clear the trees. Intersection departure, couldn’t clear the trees. None of the above, hit the trees? Should be an easy one to answer. Tullahoma has had a long time jump operation there. Does the DHC6 auto feather?
An open door and a loose pilot chute was always my biggest fear.
What is the accident rate of jump aircraft compared to commuter service?
(There are hazards, my good brother Brian had to kick one first-time jumper off of the strut or wheel. Turned out he and buddy had fortified themselves with booze beforehand. So psychological assessment was needed of jumpers especially first-timers.
First-timers are cabled to airplane for automatic deployment of chute.)