Incident Overview
On July 12, 2020, at the Wrocław Szymanów airfield (EPWS), skydiving operations were conducted using a Cessna TU 206 G aircraft. The jump organizer assigned two pilots: Pilot 1 for the morning shift and Pilot 2 for the afternoon. Pilot 1 began flights at 07:09 UTC and completed 12 sorties by 13:15 UTC. Pilot 2 took over at 13:26 UTC, performing 11 sorties until 18:59 UTC. Refueling and aircraft handover occurred with the engine running, as per the specialized operations manual.
Findings
After the day's flights, during a routine inspection, Pilot 2 discovered that the tips of the propeller blades were bent (see Figure 1 in the original report). Pilot 1 later reported that during his sixth flight, a hard landing had occurred. Following that landing, while refueling with the engine running, Pilot 1 conducted an inspection and found no visible damage. Engine parameters throughout all flights remained within normal limits.
Cause
The incident was attributed to a hard landing during which the propeller blades made contact with the airfield surface, resulting in the observed damage.