Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

He was, but what he did was a bump. Pitch up, push over hard. He pushed
hard enough to flood the carb at one point. Parachutes would have been next
to useless anyway. Not much chance of getting out of a 172 at the sort of
speeds it would have been going and the people on board would more than
likely not have been clued up enough to get out anyway.
Lots of people do this and it's not all that dangerous, though with a full
pax complement the aircraft's Loading margins are reduced significantly
(that's one reason why utility category has a higher G allowance),but why
not just get an aerobatic airplane and do it right anyway?
Aside from anything else it's more fun.



I concurr... and yes, the chance of a back pax getting out with a chute
is a crapshoot if a wing breaks off of a Cessna in flight. Some of the
best fun I've had was doing aerobatics in a Boeing Stearman.... but I
had a chute on and an easy way to get out.