That line comes from little ms Hattie Pearman.

Chip, this has been one of the most entertaining threads I have ever read. Not as much about the plane maybe as the personalities

Read the NTSB report.

The pilot was NOT INCAPACITATED. This is you projecting your belief system onto the event with alternative facts.

The pilot TOLD the passenger to pull the chute. The passenger DID NOT decide to do so on their own.


It isn't quibbling, the accident doesn't fit the profile of a passenger taking control and saving themselves. Period.


You actually don't know that for fact.

We have two cases where pilots decided to deploy the chute, the chute failed, and in both cases, NO ONE DIED. So even when the chute is initiated, it is not certain death if you don't use it.

Mike C.

Mike,

it is fascinating when you're so sure you're right that you spell out your punctuation.

Period.

That was after they hit two sets of power lines at about 100 ft AGL, an altitude where the chute doesn't work. The power lines were 1 mile from the runway.

Also, this was a case where the pilot wasn't incapacitated. His own statement:

At approximately 19:20 airplane slammed into a sharp nose down attitude, a moment later while trying to regain control, the plane made few left and right violent moves, I noticed wires, which made me realize we had hit the power line. Immediately pulled the throttle and the mixture back and reached for chute handle but noticed that it was not there, quickly looked and noticed that the passenger (my wife) has already pulled the handle and her hand was still holding it.

Still not a single case where a passenger saved themselves by initiating a chute pull in a Cirrus aircraft.

The concept that an SR passenger could save themselves with a chute pull provides emotional comfort but has yet to be seen in practice after ~7 million flight hours. During those hours, we've seen numerous examples of when PILOTS didn't activate the chute when they should, so why do we believe a passenger can know when to do it?

Mike C.

Who cares about the chute! It's a placebo. The best thing it does is make non-aviators feel safe.

Other than IFR with low ceilings or over mountains... where is it really going to make that much of a difference.

Besides people still manage in most cases to kill themselves in one of two fashions... CFIT or stall / spin close to the airport. In either case the parachute is worthless. How many people die crashing a single engine airplane after an engine failure... very few.

BUT... if it makes momma happy... it's a brilliant device.

Saying that there were computers before Mac is like saying there were airplanes before Cirrus. So what? There were computers, just not that kind of computers, and there were smartphones, just not that kind of phone. The genius of Jobs was that he could see what kind of a product (computer, phone, etc.) people would want to have before anyone else did.

Kinda like Cirrus.

Maybe in your imaginary world, because in real world things don't work that way.

Of course the pilot was incapacitated. He could no longer safely fly the plane, how is it anything but incapacitated?

By that strange definition, the passenger was also "incapacitated".

Also, every pilot who has ever crashed was also "incapacitated".

The pilot did not, however, lose his mental or physical capabilities, which is what is meant by "incapacitated". He directed the passenger to deploy the chute and the passenger did.

7 million Cirrus flight hours, not one case where a passenger used the chute due to an incapacitated pilot.

Mike C.

Maybe in your imaginary world, because in real world things don't work that way.

The "so what" is that Apple filled existing markets, and Cirrus did so with the SR22.

The SF50 doesn't fill an existing market, the toy single engine jet market. The plane is just not good for any other purpose than personal amusement. It is turboprop speeds, jet fuel flows, turboprop altitudes, and lacks propulsion redundancy.

Mike C.

By that strange definition, the passenger was also "incapacitated".

Also, every pilot who has ever crashed was also "incapacitated".

The pilot did not, however, lose his mental or physical capabilities, which is what is meant by "incapacitated". He directed the passenger to deploy the chute and the passenger did.

7 million Cirrus flight hours, not one case where a passenger used to chute due to an incapacitated pilot.

Mike C.

You can't be serious. I just laugh at these comments.

The "existing market" is "people who want to buy an airplane". The "existing market" is "wherever airplanes are currently being sold".

By your logic, if someone built a working Teleporter (beam me up Scotty) nobody would want it because there is no "existing market".