One of the deadliest air disasters in Finland's history occurred this past Easter Sunday. A Comp Air 8 kit-built airplane, that was a few minutes away from dropping skydivers over Jamijarvi Finland, suffered "technical problems", according to one of the survivors. As stated to the interviewing police officers after being released from the hospital with minor injuries.
The Comp Air 8 is an experimental kit-built airplane. It is a very rare, small, single engine, all composite, turbo prop aircraft exported from Florida. It was the only one of its kind operating in Finland.
The pilot and 2 skydivers were able to exit the airplane and survive as it spiraled to the ground. The remaining 8 skydivers could not, for unknown reasons, exit the airplane. They consisted of 2 women and 6 men, all from Finland. This story will be updated as more information is released.
At approximately 11:30 am local eastern Australian time (Saturday morning) a Cessna 206 with skydivers onboard crashed soon after take off from Caboolture Field near Brisbane Australia. Witnesses said that the airplane veered sharply to the left soon after take off, hitting the ground and bursting into flames. All 5 people onboard died in the crash. It is not clear which skydiving company owned the airplane, there is more than one operating at this field.
Update: According to police the victims were 4 males and 1 female. A male pilot, 2 male skydiving instructors and 2 skydiving customers. The names have not been released yet.
Bryan Carpenter of Aerodynamic Flight Academy told reporters that, "The Cessna 206 lurched sharply to its left at an altitude of 100 to 200 feet." It is not known what caused the crash. However, according to Mr. Carpenter, "...the engine was delivering power on touch down."
