AVweb
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2021–2025
13:44 · 1M views · Mar 18, 2019
AVweb's Paul Bertorelli analyzes the safety record of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), looking at the 90-plus deployments over 20 years of Cirrus flying. He asks whether the whole-aircraft parachute has actually saved lives.
Cited in aviation-accident threads as a compact analysis of whether whole-aircraft parachutes work, with the track record described as impressive.
4 comments from Hacker News
AVweb did an interesting video a couple of years ago, "Are Planes With Parachutes Really Safer?": > The Cirrus line of aircraft have been flying for 20 years and although most people in aviation know they have full aircraft parachutes, it's fair to ask how effective these have been. With more than 90 uses of the so-called CAPS, has the system really saved lives? In this video, AVweb's Paul Bertorelli analyzes the record. * this video Concludes that parachutes a generally a good thing, and even though the Cirrus aircraft fleet has grown from 5000 to 7000 airplanes over the last ten years (12m30s), the anual fatality numbers have stay the same and so have overall annual accidents. The first few years didn't see much improvement, probably because the training didn't emphasize it as much, but since ~2013 the advice is generally " if you're experiencing issues just pull the 'chute ". There is a cost to fixing the aircraft afterwards, but it will be you paying it and not your widow or estate.
Here's an analysis of the CAPS system's safety record: this video (contains some good footage of an SR22 parachuting into the ocean, and into the ground). This is a good overview on the survivability of water landings: [LINK] . I haven't watched the video recently but I think even a 172 that cartwheels after landing has a pretty good survivability rate, something like 90%. Parachute is a nice to have, of course.
There's precedent. [LINK] [30s] this video [15m] The Cirrus system is deployed by rockets, allowing it to function at a very low altitude. They say that you should deploy it no matter what altitude you are at, and it will add at least some friction. The system has a very impressive track record. However, at this altitude, with an airplane this heavy, you might have to put the rockets on the plane to decelerate enough to save lives.
Perhaps some private planes (Cirrus) are better equipped to survive losing a wing, since they have rocket-deployed parachutes. Somewhat boring video of the parachute in action ("boring" being a synonym for "an amazing triumph of safety engineering"): [LINK] 14m video essay about the system: this video (Reporting says this was an Embraer, this is strictly a tangent.)