Turned on the BBC news that is shown on my local PBS station and the reporter told of “a pilot making history” when he deployed (what we know to be) CAPS … They had video of the deployment ---- apparently happened around Dallas, Tx…
Is this new?? Or is the BBC just reporting it???
Brian
The first deployment was in that area a year or so ago. It was caused by a mechanic failing to properly reinstall a nut that secures an aileron. When the nut came off the aileron was hanging from the other end making flying very challenging. The pilot wisely decided that he did not want to become a test pilot and elected to pull the chute.
THE PARACHUTE PLANE SOFT LANDING
484 words
20 May 2004
ABC News: World News Tonight
English
© Copyright 2004, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS
(OC) Finally this evening, a soft landing, or at least a chance at one. If you are ever in a small airplane and the engine fails or the wing cracks, there is a new idea to calm you down. Here’s ABC’s Mike von Fremd.
MIKE VON FREMD, ABC NEWS
(VO) Pilot Lionel Morrison made aviation history and is amazed to be alive to tell about it.
LIONEL MORRISON, PILOT
I knew when I pulled that thing, that I was the only person who had ever done it. And I was like, I hope it works.
MIKE VON FREMD
(VO) What Morrison pulled was a lever …
LIONEL MORRISON
Pull that 'chute.
MIKE VON FREMD
(VO) … activating a rocket-propelled parachute like this one, that was attached, not to his body, but to the frame of his airplane. He lost a portion of his wing flying over Dallas. And the parachute was his only hope.
LIONEL MORRISON
I knew that when I had my hand on the trigger, that no one else had ever done this before, that I was going to be the first person to do it.
MIKE VON FREMD
(VO) It worked perfectly, and within seconds, the plane was floating gently through the clouds. It landed in the trees near a golf course.
LIONEL MORRISON
When I first hit the ground and I knew that the airplane was in one piece, I was in one piece, you can imagine, I was elated.
MIKE VON FREMD
(VO) The manufacturer has installed the parachutes on 18,000 small planes. And the system has saved the lives of two more pilots within the past year. The emergency parachute can even be deployed by a passenger in the backseat.
ALAN KLAPMEIER, CIRRUS DESIGN
What if the pilot has a heart attack? There’s certainly a reassurance there that they know there’s something they can do. There’s that one last alternative that can save their lives.
MIKE VON FREMD
(OC) The emergency parachute is now a proven safety device for small general aviation planes, and NASA is funding research to adapt the technology so it can also be used to save much larger jet aircraft.
MIKE VON FREMD
(VO) The cost to add this parachute to a small plane ranges from $3,000 to $10,000.
LIONEL MORRISON
It’s worth whatever they want to charge for it. I probably shouldn’t say that. But the, that’s what it’s worth to me.
MIKE VON FREMD
(VO) It is a challenge, but the hope is that someday this technology may be possible on commercial aircraft. Mike von Fremd, ABC News, Dallas.
PETER JENNINGS
(OC) That is our report on “World News Tonight.” I’m Peter Jennings. Hope we’ll see you tomorrow. It will be Friday, and our “Person of the Week.” Good night.
Document WNT0000020040521e05k00008
That is what I thought… Guess the BBC is a bit behind the times. Funny thing is that most of the people who viewed the same news report, probably think it just happened…
Brian
In reply to:
The first deployment was in that area a year or so ago. It was caused by a mechanic failing to properly reinstall a nut that secures an aileron. When the nut came off the aileron was hanging from the other end making flying very challenging. The pilot wisely decided that he did not want to become a test pilot and elected to pull the chute.
Actually, that deployment happened in October 2002! You can read more about it here.
When the nut came off the aileron was hanging from the other end making flying very challenging. The pilot wisely decided that he did not want to become a test pilot and elected to pull the chute.<<
Ahem! Errr…I’m not suggesting Mr. Morrison made the wrong decision, but I would submit that being the first pilot to ever land a full-size certified aircraft under a canopy might be viewed as “test piloting” by some…particularly since it involved using an aircraft system, for its intended purpose!
In all liklihood, the BBC picked up the feed from ABC news that did a special last night on the chute incident in October 2002. Do not know why these chose this time frame to report it, but it was on “ABC Nightly News” last night.
As for having video of the deployment, that was probably video of one of the tests done by Cirrus themselves since, as far as I know, no video exists of the one in Dallas unless it was of the plane already on the ground after the fact.
In reply to:
THE PARACHUTE PLANE SOFT LANDING
484 words
20 May 2004
ABC News: World News Tonight
English
(c) Copyright 2004, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thanks for the transcript.[:)] I didn’t get a chance to see the broadcast.