A skydiving plane carrying nine people was over the allowable weight limit and unbalanced when it plummeted to the ground and burst into flames, killing all aboard, a coroner found.
Horrified onlookers on the ground could do nothing for the four tourists and five Skydive NZ staff on board the Walter Fletcher FU24 which crashed into a paddock near the Fox Glacier airstrip shortly after taking off on 2010, in one of the country's worst aviation disasters.
Coroner Coroner Richard McElrea yesterday released his findings into the tragedy.
He concluded that the aircraft was overloaded and off-balance. This, coupled with some unknown factor - possible engine malfunction, control column failure, or inadvertent pilot error - probably accounted for the aircraft's loss of control, he said. APN
