What you describe in the second sentence - rotating around the vertical-axis - is typically termed a spin .

I think parent was saying the roll was along the planes' length rather than tail-over-nose, the latter usually result in the aircraft breaking up as the torque will be really high.

Rotation around the

- longitudinal axis: roll, controlled by ailerons.

- vertical axis: yaw, controlled by rudder.

- lateral axis (through the wings): pitch, controlled by elevators.

Thanks - those are correct terms for aircraft in flight, that don't apply to out-of-control vehicles on the ground. An airplane that loses traction and rotates about it's vertical axis is spinning, not yawing.

It certainly ended up upside down.

In case you (or others confused) haven't seen it year, this video clearly shows the sideways roll: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/1isabt...