[Limelight69]

Originally Posted by Nobuddy

Only thing that makes any sense to me is flying without a legal second and not wanting to get caught.

Valid point

[60sstuff]

Maybe I missed it, but has anyone had a discussion on the possibility of an engine failure and how that may have happened on take off.

This seems to be the reason this plane needed to turn back and with 7 people, luggage and full load of fuel the single working engine just wasn’t enough power to deal with situation.

[Limelight69]

Originally Posted by 60sstuff

Maybe I missed it, but has anyone had a discussion on the possibility of an engine failure and how that may have happened on take off.

This seems to be the reason this plane needed to turn back and with 7 people, luggage and full load of fuel the single working engine just wasn’t enough power to deal with situation.

It does sound like it was an engine failure but assuming the remaining engine was performing nominally they could have made it back safely. There could be more to the story and way off base here. But at face value it does look like some poor decisions by the PIC might have led to this unnecessary tragedy.