July 25, 2011 in airplane crash, Cirrus crash, Cirrus crash Florida, Cirrus parachute recovery system, Miscellaneous, parachute recovery system by Jerry H. Trachtman

Cirrus Crash in Palm Bay, FL

On Saturday July 23, 2011 a Cirrus SR22 went down at the east coast Florida city of Palm Bay, killing the pilot and his wife. In TV news interviews, witnesses at the scene said the engine was "sputtering", the airplane was flying "low and slow", it made a right turn, then went straight down nose first. One witness saw fuel coming out of the wreckage, but there was no fire. Speculation on the cause of the crash would not be proper, but one has to wonder why the Cirrus parachute recovery system apparently was not deployed. The aircraft had flown from the west coast of Florida to the east coast, about a 40 minute flight, and if mechanical problems were encountered there most probably would have been time to activate the system at a safe altitude. Perhaps the accident investigation will determine whether or not the parachute had been activated by the pilot but did not deploy, or if it was never activated.