Regardless of the power setting, you are not going to recover from a spin
with 5 jumpers spin plastered against the back bulkhead, putting the CG well
aft of 30% of the wing chord...
denny

Never having jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, nor having had people
bail out of my M20J, I'm ignorant re carrying jumpers. Do they belt themselves
in place during take off and climb?

Is it likely they were all well aft, or fell back as the pilot slowed down for
their jump, or did he lose it on climbout?