CAA: GA News, "Plane-saving chute makes history"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday, October 27, 2002  

Plane-saving chute makes history
By Dave Hirschman
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution


Private pilot Lionel Morrison knew he was in trouble a few minutes after
takeoff when the single-engine airplane he was flying began rolling to
the left. 

Alone in the four-seat plane, he struggled to keep the wings level. But
soon Morrison was holding the joystick with both hands and barely
keeping the plane steady. He looked out at the left wing and realized to
his horror that the aileron --- the hinged surface that controls the
airplane's roll --- was falling off. 

It was a clear, sunny morning earlier this month in central Texas, and
Morrison, a 53-year-old architect, was about to make aviation history. 

His small plane, built by Cirrus Design Corp., was equipped with a
"ballistic parachute" designed to bring the entire aircraft safely to
the ground in an emergency --- and Morrison decided to use it. He pulled
the parachute's emergency handle, firing a charge that shot the
parachute outward. 

Seconds later, Morrison's airplane, with him in it, was swinging gently
below the parachute's broad canopy. It drifted safely down onto the
prairie. 

"There was some doubt as I reached for the emergency handle whether the
system would actually work," Morrison said. "After the parachute opened,
I had a great sense of relief." 

Morrison became the first person saved by a piece of safety equipment
that, until then, had been tried by only a few test pilots in carefully
controlled situations. 

Similar chutes have saved 155 ultra-light and hang-glider pilots in the
last 20 years, but Morrison was the first general aviation pilot to
deploy one successfully. 

Cirrus Designs founder Alan Klapmeier, who insisted the parachutes be
included as standard equipment on all his Minnesota company's planes,
says the incident was "a watershed event" for a safety device he thinks
will someday be as common as air bags in automobiles. 

"When people look back 20 years from now, they'll point to this as the
event that got the aviation industry to accept ballistic parachutes," he
said. 

So far, just 600 private planes are equipped with ballistic parachutes,
out of 18,000 capable of using them. Most are Cirrus SR-20s and SR-22s
that came with the chutes as standard equipment. Cirrus is the
second-largest U.S. builder of single-engine planes behind Cessna. 

Klapmeier has advocated ballistic parachutes since 1984, when he
survived a midair collision that killed another pilot. He refused to
sell planes without the equipment, which adds about $15,000 to the cost
of each $300,000 aircraft. 

"We've taken some criticism from people within the industry who accused
us of using parachutes as a sales gimmick," he said. "But we're
missionaries when it comes to raising the level of safety. And since we
really believed that parachutes enhanced safety, there was no way we
could leave them off." 

Mark Thomas, founder of Ballistic Recovery Systems, the Minnesota firm
that makes the Cirrus chutes, says he expects them to gain wider
acceptance. 

Thomas' company has FAA approval to install the devices in Cessna 150,
152 and 172 trainers. 

"This is going to solidify and validate our product in the minds of
general aviation pilots," Thomas said. "We hope it helps create a demand
for our products among aircraft buyers. If they do that, aircraft
manufacturers will respond the same way automobile manufacturers did
with air bags." 

Bob Rosenburg, president of Airshares Elite, an Atlanta fractional
ownership firm with 14 Cirrus planes and options to buy up to 36 more,
said the Texas incident helped attract two more buyers. 

"People have taken a wait-and-see attitude to the safety equipment in
the Cirrus --- but now they're seeing that it really works," he said.
"It's been one of many factors they consider when choosing what kind of
aircraft to buy. Now, it's going to be a major consideration." 

Cirrus' Klapmeier said his company doesn't hold any patents on ballistic
parachutes and hopes other manufacturers will begin installing them on
new aircraft. He said they can be useful in engine failures, pilot
incapacitation or disorientation, or structural failures. 

A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report points to
improper maintenance as a possible cause for the Oct. 3 incident
involving Morrison. 

"Flying isn't as dangerous as people think it is," Klapmeier said, "but
it's not as safe as it could be. If we can make flying safer, we'll save
lives and increase the size of the market at the same time."


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