eastcat, is there anything a pilot could do at 3000 ft or whatever to make the plane rip itself apart, save open one of the doors?
In a Pc-12 unlikely. I suspected a high altitude stall initially (it was in cruise phase) and most private pilots aren't trained to recover from high altitude stalls but it appears (if that article is right) that is was explosive decompression. The Pc-12 is only rated to fly to 31,000 if it is RVSM certified, 28,000 if not (but some still fly higher anyways, enforcement is lax) which means the cabin differential was in the 5.5-6psi range (difference in pressure between the inside of the plane and the outside). Is that enough to rip someone out of the plane? Idk.
Then you wonder if he became hypoxic (only takes about a minute at that altitude) or if it was truly a structural failure. NTSB investigation should figure it out though, sounds like they have the entire wreckage.
Edit: Was it in cruise or at 3,000ft? the news stories have conflicting info.
EDIT: Time to climb for a PC-12 is 30min and the article says it crashed roughly half an hour after departure. Depending on if ATC step climbed them or not they could have made it to cruise altitude, but that (IMO) makes the decompression/hypoxia story more likely.
