10 Skydivers Killed By EVERYONE’S Reckless Mistakes!

This was the deadliest skydiving plane crash in over 20 years and one of Hawaii's worst civil aviation disasters. This is a shocking and tragic story filled with reckless mistakes and overlooked warnings that led to a horrifying disaster. What began as a thrilling skydiving adventure turned into one of the most disturbing aviation accidents, leaving 10 people dead. From a damaged aircraft to a pilot with questionable training, the chain of events is as heartbreaking as it is infuriating. This never should have happened. Viewer discretion is advised—this story will leave you speechless.

#aviation #flying #pilotdebrief

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[MrSlipstreem]

Anyone who gets caught falsifying documents should NEVER be given a second chance!

[Boutdantime]

One of the passengers on this plane was a friend of mine. As an aircraft mechanic I’ve wondered what happened. You’ve made sense of it all.. I appreciate your knowledge and explanation of all these accidents. Your videos have taught me to take my job much more seriously.

[PeterBooth-jngc]

I got a 100 on my Private Pilot written exam. I almost failed my check ride because my check pilot told me to execute a power off stall and recovery and I executed a power on stall recovery that developed into an incipient spin. The check pilot grabbed the controls because he was startled, and didn’t think I had control of the plane. He was expecting an uneventful power off stall, and instead got a nose high full break. Neither of us were completely clear if he had asked for a power on, or power off… so he gave me the benefit of the doubt and passed me. A few months later, I was asked by the tower, while on a southerly heading to make a left turn to 270. This was to provide spacing for a commuter airline entering the airspace ahead of me, instead, I turned right to a heading of 270 and came face to face with a Saab about a mile away at the same altitude converging rapidly. A few more times, I bumbled similar requests from the tower. Apparently I have a hard time with transposition of numbers and directions… I don’t fly anymore… for the safety of others.

[wendygayle]

My skydiving instructor, Daniel, was on this flight. Every time I watch one of your videos, he comes to my mind and i wonder when you'd do a video over this. I still get that sinking feeling in my stomache and I shed tears for him, his new wife of just a few months, his daughter, and the rest of his family when I look at my pictures and videos from when I jumped with him. He was truly a remarkable individual, and he was filled with excitement whenever someone expressed an interest in going beyond tandem skydiving. Daniel is deeply missed at his home drop zone, Airtight in Skiatook, Oklahoma. Daniel and Casey we're the 2 that got on at the last minute. This was actually then last flight of day which was why they got on at the last minute.

[vdubs]

As a CFI, it's absolutely unbelievable to me that the DPE(s) who signed the pilot off never questioned the fact that a pre-solo student pilot logged 40+ hours of multi PIC time in a King Air. Any of our local examiners would have laughed him out of the room and probably reported him to the FSDO.

They were either in on whatever racket the flight school owner was running or did not even check his logbook.

[Unswerving]

Bobby needs to be in jail for life, not just a revoked license. The owner should be in there with him. He was probably employing Bobby and paying him under the table because he knew Bobby couldn't legally do the maintenance, which meant he could pay less to have Bobby do the work. There is no way to avoid using the word "shocking" repeatedly in this video! The only word that was missing but should have been frequently mentioned was the word "criminal"!

[mdub]

As a former air controller and skydiver, and a private pilot of nearly 40 years, I am without words after watching this debrief.

[hammieinvestigations]

Just a comment: I use to work as a small-time employee for a small general aviation manufacturer. The single engine aircraft price tag was low so a newly certified pilot started the purchase of an airplane. The new purchaser/new pilot was being briefed about the aircraft by the company instructor pilot. I was overhearing the conversation. When the instructor asked the new aircraft purchaser/pilot questions the guy could not answer a single question from the instructor about basic flight. When the instructor gave the correct answer, the guy would say "oh yea, I remember now." The new purchaser/new pilot wanted to fly the brand-new aircraft from Florida to upper New England to surprise this family for Thanksgiving and show-off his success, ability to purchase and pilot an aircraft. I overheard the guy say the plane would be just like driving a car. --- I got into trouble and was made to feel like a traitor when I told management they "could not sell" the airplane to the excited new purchaser/new pilot because of what I overheard and considered the guy unfit to fly and hence a liability to the company. In the end the company revoked the sale. I was consider a troublemaker and the direct result of a lost sale. Why is it when we try to prevent disaster we are the enemy and the bad guy?

[svenf]

That’s the wildest debrief I’ve ever seen. Rules and regulations - many of them written in blood - intentionally ignored and broken left and right, leading to more bloodshed. I’m speechless.

[stucrisp]

I am an Aussie bush pilot (retired now) and early in my commercial career path I flew para drops. The aircraft were all a little battered from the use case for them but mechanically they were all in superb condition. It was NEVER an issue to stop flying if something looked amiss and everyone in the organisations that I flew for were "safety first". With piston a/c the main issue was shock cooling in the descent which throttled the operations a little, but no one ever said anything about speeding things up to me. Most of the pilots (at least in Queensland Aus in the 1980s) were young guys building hours like me. We all treated it professionally as a commercial operation, so it pains me to see this video. The accident was almost inevitable. Thank you for caring enough to make this content <hat is doffed to you>.

[unclelar]

Scary as hell. I'm a pilot and I also skydive. I have worried, at times, about whether my chute would open, lol, but never about who is flying the aircraft, or the maintenance of the aircraft. Going forward, I will look into this, before I leave the ground. My heart hurts for the lives lost. So many links in this accident chain broken. Unforgivable.

[dgf]

As a skydiver this has reopened a fragile wound that hasn't fully healed. I knew one of the 10 jumpers on that plane. Just like I know the owner/operator of Byron. I know many pilots that fly jumpers and are also working elsewhere commercially.

Sincerely, Thank You for producing this video.

I have tears running down my face as I type. I will be sharing this with all of my local drop zones, and requesting they disseminate the video far and wide. I also know multiple people that were at the aforementioned skydiving accident. April 16, 1992... 16 of the 22 souls didn't survive. Those that did, were both physically and emotionally damaged... This emotionally shattered one of the people running the drop zone. He carried his grief for nearly 30 years before he took his own life. His sisters are some of my closest skydiving family. Many aviators see skydiving as a bastard child of the community. I can honestly say, safety briefings at my dz are done with totalitarian authority. When something happens, we use it as a learning tool and a way of positively moving forward. It fosters incredible closeness, logical preparation, structured discipline, clearly communicated expectations, and above all we look out for each other on every single jump... Again, thank you for this video.

[wmrayburn]

Hoover, I'm a Sport Pilot, 73 years old, and I've watched a dozen or two of your videos. I think this may have been your best. Thank you

[kenfern]

3 years before this happened, I did a tandem jump with Daniel Herndon at Skiatook airport in Oklahoma. He was a great guy, made me feel at ease and did an awesome job of handling my jump. I was heartbroken to learn he was among the group who died that day. Terrible loss for all of the families involved.

[CentralStateMower]

A broken King Air C90, operated by a low time pilot with questionable training and maintained poorly by a mechanic who kept no records... what could go wrong. 😢

[ryanadventureeverything]

Wow. Being a professional pilot and skydiver. Both for over 27 years. I’m absolutely disgusted with the negligence in this incident.

[CKmum]

saving money, cutting corners, ego/show-off-ness = tragedy. So sad as it was so preventable. Thanks for all of your many hours of research that went into this episode.

[Jakes_on_a_plane]

The day before I got married in April of 2019, I was on that plane with my in-laws who wanted to jump. I met Jerone and told him that I had just got my Multi and wanted to go on that flight. I remember him telling me after dropping the pax that the owner doesn't like him doing more than 3k fpm descent but he was about 5k and then on short final he was still 2k feet ended up using all the runway. Thank you for doing this story and hope people within aviation grasp how important doing the right thing is when it comes to safety.

[daggersrule]

Hey Hoover - this isn’t really a comment on this video in particular, just general appreciation for your hard work on this channel.
I’m a commercial Helicopter pilot on the Pacific coast, and so many of the factors you bring up in all your videos ring true in some aspect of my aviation experience.
You make everything more personal and accessible than NTSB reports, and it’s greatly appreciated by your viewers- whether they’re in the industry or not.
Keep doing what you’re doing; you’re making the air a safer place.

[pcaviator]

If this debrief was an actual block of Swiss cheese, there's no way that it would be able to hold itself together. This is truly one of the most horrific and emotionally frustrating cases that I have ever heard...just unreal. Thank you for all of your hard work in bringing this heartbreaking debrief, you certainly couldn't have had any pleasure or enjoyment in doing so.