Cirrus deploys BRS parachute - passenger jumps

[Arnie Madsen]

Once in a while the subject is brought up here about Ballistic Recovery Systems which deploys a parachute to bring the aircraft to earth in an emergency.

Sadly a fire prevented this one from ending successfully.

A Cirrus SR20 hit a towplane and glider in Colorado and the BRS was deployed on the Cirrus but passengers were forced to jump when the aircraft caught fire.

The glider pilot was able to decouple the tow rope , flew through the fireball and land safely.

Here is the full article:

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Two small planes collided in flames over Boulder’s outskirts and killed all three people aboard, while a glider under tow by one aircraft cut loose and flew through the fireball to safety, officials and witnesses said.

Three people were aboard the glider that managed to disconnect from a Piper Pawnee as a Cirrus SR20 clipped the tow line an instant before the two planes collided, Boulder County sheriff’s office spokesman Rick Brough said.

Both aircraft plummeted toward the ground but the glider landed safely with no injuries to anyone on board.

“We understand the glider went through a fireball after the impact,” said NTSB field investigator Jennifer Rodi.

The crash occurred about 1:30 p.m. Saturday near the Boulder Municipal Airport over a suburban area dotted with homes and businesses. No one on the ground was injured.

“We heard a loud bang and looked up in the air and we saw what looked like a glider and big, black smoke right next to it,” Paul Aiken told Boulder’s Daily Camera. “It looked like fireworks, the explosion.”


The Denver Post quoted Sue Patton, 53, as saying she saw two people plunge out of a plane.

“The plane was burning really strong,” she said. “They really didn’t have a choice.”

Rob Zimmerman, who was outside nearby American Legion Post 10, told the paper he saw one person come from the aircraft.

The pilot of the glider was Ruben Bakker, according to his mother-in-law Deborah Tjarks, who spoke to The Associated Press. She said he saw the collision about to happen and released the glider and banked but still flew through the flames. Bakker did not immediately return a call for comment.

Brough said the Piper Pawnee with only a pilot aboard belonged to Mile High Gliding Inc. and had just taken off from the Boulder airport with the glider in tow.

A woman who answered the phone at the glider company declined to comment.

The other plane, a single-engine, four-seat Cirrus SR20, was carrying two people. It was unclear where the Cirrus took off. Tail numbers were not immediately available.

Brough said the identifications of the victims were being determined by the coroner’s office.

Brough said there was initial concern that others were aboard the Cirrus because of its number of seats but investigators were now “pretty certain” there were just the two aboard.

Gliders, or sailplanes, are lightweight aircraft that are often towed into the sky, then released to glide to the ground.

Patton said she watched as one of the planes spiraled downward with a plume of black smoke billowing from it and a parachute deployed.

“It was kind of a slow-motion thing,” Patton said. “It was surreal.”

An amateur video shot at the scene also showed a plane on fire, floating to the ground trailing thick, black smoke and a parachute.

Brough said the parachute was designed to deploy if a plane was disabled and was attached to the plane’s wreckage, not a pilot or passenger.

The crash spread debris over a 11/2 mile region, scorching several sections of prairie in the Rocky Mountain foothills.

It wasn’t immediately known how the Cirrus got close enough to the Piper Pawnee to clip its towline.

The News Tribune in Duluth, Minn., the region where the Cirrus is manufactured, quoted Joan Pallone, of Broomfield, Colo., as saying her brother-in-law, Bob Matthews, and his brother, Mark Matthews, were on the Cirrus. She said they’re from the Boulder area.

———

Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda contributed to this report from Denver

AP-ES-02-07-10 0922EST 

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2010/02/06/12772631-ap.html

[Arnie Madsen]

I did some checking on successful BRS and here is what I found:
(Keep in mind it applies to fixed wing aircraft)



The first ballistic recovery parachutes were on the market in 1982, and the first deployment was in 1983.
Between then and April 2007, over 225 people were aboard 201 aircraft which deployed BRS parachutes; most of whose lives were presumably saved by those parachute deployments.

[PW_Plack]

BRS is mildly controversial. There have been cases in which the correct response by a proficient pilot (in cases such as a spin) could have averted the crashes completely. Instead, occupants were OK, but the planes were totalled. (Not the case for this Cirrus - a controlled landing is tough with a wing missing.)

There are other cases in which pilots of BRS-equipped planes have taken off into conditions way above their capabilities, leading to speculation that the 'chute may have inspired overconfidence.

It will be interesting to read what the NTSB says happened here. It's likely there was no radio contact, and see-and-avoid obviously broke down on the part of everyone but the guy in the glider.

One thing's for sure in this case - it bears out the old joke that "the only time you can have too much altitude is when you're on fire."

[PTKay]

It was the case in Germany after first introduction of ABS in cars.

Initially the insurance companies granted rebates on insurance fees for cars equipped with ABS.

Eventually the statistic showed that there were more accidents by cars
with ABS, then without, overconfidence of the drivers blamed...

Eventually ABS became an industry standard and the debate settled.

[Hognose]

Emergency chutes are a big part of my master's thesis; they appear to be quite a positive thing, and would be more so if there were not extensive regulatory obstacles to their installation in type-certified light aircraft.

Of course, there are technical obstacles to their installation in rotorcraft. Not insurmountable ones, in my opinion: one Russian helicopter type has ejection seats, and the German Fa-330 gyrokite had a working and man-rated parachute recovery system.

Still, even proven systems have limitations. The Cirrus chute does not work if deployed out-of-envelope, which has happened several times. If you blow it at too high a speed, it tears off; if you blow it too low, as in a stall-spin from short final, it doesn't have the time/altitude to deploy. As long as it can get to full inflation/full line stretch it will usually save you.

In this case, with a fire, the two brothers on the plane were probably doomed. If the plane had not had a chute, they'd have ridden it in (like the tow pilot). Inflight fire is a very bad situation and is guaranteed to induce panic in crew. Ultimately the choice may be jump and die, or stay and fry, like a WWI pilot; there was a guy in a Van's RV (popular fixed-wing kit airplane) that jumped like that a couple of years ago. A jump is not survivable, generally, but to sit still and burn simply isn't possible -- a human can't do that when there's an alternative, even fatal.

Bad news for the pilots and their families. My condolences.

[Doug Riley]

Unwelcome memories of the jumpers in the 9/11 disaster.