Airplane Stalls as Skydivers Start Their Jump

Occurred on October 14, 2021 / Mosselbay, South Africa

Info from Licensor: "Incident info released for general information and educational purposes to the aviation community, with the full knowledge of the drop zone operations. The Beechcraft C90 King Air was trimmed up for the exit procedure at an altitude of 16000’ AGL for the second load of a planned 20x jump event. We opened the door and began the climb out. As is normal, the skydive team was fully focused on achieving correct positioning and exit timing. This intense focus on task resulted in many of the skydivers missing the tell-tale signs of an imminent stall. In inside of just a few seconds, the plane 'slipped' once and then twice, after which the aircraft banked. Those on the outside of the door and immediately inside of the door jumped. With 9 of us initially in the sky, there were still 5 skydivers inside of the aircraft. The plane freefell and spun, nose down next to us. After the spin, the aircraft started to veer underneath us but luckily did not make contact. As the aircraft started to recover from the stall one more skydiver exited, with 4 skydivers and the pilot in the aircraft. The team that had jumped executed the pre-planned formations in a safe and normal manner while the aircraft returned and landed safely on the runway. The incident was promptly reported to the South African CAA and PASA national safety and training officer. The next day the jump team made adjustments to their exit procedure following discussion with the pilot and no further incidents or near-incidents were experienced."