Cirrus parachute fails to stop fatal crash

Not good. Don't know why the deployed shoot didn't slow the planes descent.
The Cirrus ariframe looks like it completely shattered on impact.
RIP to the 4 people on board.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066691/Plane-Crash-near-Chicagos-Crystal-Lake-kills-businessman-Ray-Harris-2-daughters.html

The businessman and two daughters who died in plane crash tragedy after parachute failed to slow craft down.

A businessman and his two teenage daughters died in a plane crash yesterday afternoon after the parachute failed to slow the craft down.
Ray Harris and girls Ramie and Shey perished, along with a man believed to be the co-pilot, after the single-engined Cirrus-SR2 plummeted into a farm field near the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake.

It shattered into several pieces, killing all on board instantly, while on its way from Marion, Indiana to Wheaton, Illinois, where Shey, the eldest, attended college.
Mayor of Marion, Wayne Sebold, confirmed the identities of the victims as Mr Harris, a Chrystler dealership owner and former city water board president, and his daughters.

Ronnie Carmin, treasurer of the Marion Pilots Club, which owned the plane, also said the 47-year-old businessman was scheduled to fly the plane yesterday.
Mr Carmin said he was told that Mr Harris had fueled up the plane and taken off from Marion Municipal Airport around 10am Saturday.

The cause of the crash, around half an hours later, was not immediately known.
But witnesses said the four-seat model's parachute, which designed to lower the aircraft to safety after loss of control or engine failure, did not slow the craft down when it was deployed.

It became caught around a tree and may have led to the plane breaking up, they suggested.
The first people to the scene described the crash as 'horrific'.

One witness described a white stream coming from the plane as it fell and a large cloud of dust after it crashed to the ground.
'There was nothing anyone could do,' Darren Smith, one of the first people on the scene, told the Daily Herald.

Smith heard an aircraft in trouble around 10.30 a.m. It broke through the clouds above his head and crashed in the soybean field.
'I saw it a split second before it hit the ground,' he said. 'It was a horrific crash, pretty much nose first into the ground. The impact was tremendous.'

His son, Cal Smith, was in another field when he heard the impact.
'It kind of sounded like a gas pipe exploded,' Cal Smith told the Herald.

When he ran to the crash site, he saw bodies lying on the field along with a plastic container with popcorn and papers from the airplane.
'We tried to help, but there was no help that could be given,' Darren Smith said.

Farmer Marvin Marquardt, who owns the property, said the pilot may have been deploying the parachute as the plane plummeted.
The orange chute was found wrapped around an oak tree and may have contributed to the breakup of the aircraft, Marquardt suggested.

Another witness to the crash, from The Lord and Savior Lutheran Church and School across the street, said the plane had 'disintegrated'.
The Federal Aviation Administration is on the scene investigating whether rules of flight were followed, if the pilot was licensed and if the plane was properly maintained and registered, officials said.

The plane crashed near Route 14 and North Ridgefield Road.
It was flying by 'visual flight rules', which means looking out the window, so the pilot was not talking with air traffic control, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

The Marion Pilots Club Inc. in Marion, Indiana, is the registered owner of the plane, according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.
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This is how it is suppose to work (see video below).

Most small planes DO NOT have a parachute system.
Pilots either love or hate the idea of the one in the Cirrus.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAwET3Q9Og4[/ame]

 

Interesting history of CAPS deployments in Wikipedia.

As of January 30 2011, the CAPS has been activated 30 times with 50 survivors and 4 fatalities.[8] Some additional deployments have been reported by accident investigators as caused by ground impact or post-impact fires, and some accidents are still under investigation.

- October 2002, Texas, United States: detached aileron[9]

- April 2004, British Columbia, Canada: loss of control in turbulence, 4 uninjured[10]

- April 2004, Florida, United States: instrument failure in IFR conditions, 1 uninjured[11]

- September 2004, California, United States: loss of control in high-altitude climb above clouds, 2 uninjured[12]

- February 2005, California, United States: parachute deployed above design limits, pilot fatality (unknown if intentionally activated)[13]

- June 2005, New York, United States: pilot incapacitated from undiagnosed brain tumor, 1 injured[14]

- January 2006, Alabama, United States: loss of control after pilot flew into icing, 3 uninjured[15]

- February 2006, South Dakota, United States: pilot reported disorientation, 2 uninjured[16]

- August 2006, Indiana, United States: parachute deployed three miles from departure end of runway, aircraft landed in a retention pond, the parachute was deployed by a passenger, pilot fatality, 3 passengers injured[17]

- September 2006, Jamaica: pilot activated parachute under unknown circumstances, 4 uninjured[18]

- February 2007, New South Wales, Australia: Fuel line pressure sensor connection cap separated and loss of pressure stopped the engine. After an approach to a freeway forced landing, CAPS was activated, the rocket fired, but got tangled with the empennage resulting in parachute undeployment. 2 injured [19]

- April 2007, New Mexico, United States: pilot experienced spatial disorientation following loss of the airspeed indicator. After the terrain warning went off, CAPS was activated and the plane came to rest in a forested area. 1 uninjured[20]

- August 2007, Massachusetts, United States: pilot experienced spatial disorientation during approach, deployed parachute, which tangled with a LORAN tower and caused the aircraft to impact the ground. 2 seriously injured[21]

- October 2008, San Sebastian, Spain: pilot reported severe turbulence and loss of control on approach, 3 uninjured[22]

- November 2008, Turriaco, Italy: fuel exhaustion, activated parachute at low altitude, landed in trees. 1 injured, 3 uninjured[23]

- December 2008, Gouvy, Belgium: pilot reported icing, requested lower altitude but lost control, activated parachute, landed in trees. 1 uninjured

- December 2008, Louisiana, United States: pilot reported mechanical difficulties at night, activated parachute, landed in a canal. 1 uninjured

- February 2009, Florida, United States: plane observed at low altitude, perhaps in a stall/spin attitude, parachute deployed. 2 fatalities[24]

- March 2009, Maryland, United States: pilot reported mechanical difficulties, was losing altitude in IMC, activated the parachute and landed in a residential street. 1 uninjured[25]

- June 2009, North Carolina, United States: pilot reported loud noise and vibrations with oil spewing onto windshield at 6,000 feet. Activated parachute and landed in a forest. 1 uninjured[26][27]

- December 2009, Queensland, Australia: pilot reported loss of engine power during departure from Hamilton Island Airport and activated parachute over ocean. 1 injured.[28][29]

- February 2010, Colorado, United States: Mid-air collision between a Cirrus SR20 with two aboard and a Piper PA-25 Pawnee with a single pilot aboard towing a Schweizer SGS 2-32 glider carrying three. The CAPS system deployed and the wreckage (shown on video involved in flames) floated to the ground. The pilot and passenger on board the Cirrus and the pilot of the Piper were all killed. The glider made a safe landing intact with all passengers uninjured. 3 fatalities.[30][31]

- May 2010, Vest-Agder, Norway: A Cirrus SRV aircraft experienced unspecified problems in flight and the CAPS was deployed. 4 uninjured.[32]

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Agree with your points.

I'd pull the chute (if I had one) only under a few extreme conditions:
- airframe failure (e.g. wing or part of tail comes off)
- icing severe enough to cause wing or tail stall
- engine failure at night over mountainous terrain and too low to glide to nearest airport or straight road.
- complete vertigo and disorientation with the plane in an unusual attitude I couldn't figure out how to recover from (the JFK, Jr. scenario).

Otherwise, given that it seems 10% of the people die when they pull the chute, I'd rather take my chance on an emergency landing, even if my engine died in IMC.

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