When invited to Germany to speak at the Baden-Baden CPPP, I took a pilgrimage to the site of the fatal Cirrus accident at Zurich Airport. It wasn't a planned trip. But it was an impactful one. Coming almost half-way around the world for this CPPP motivated me to spend some extra time here. And Baden...
Posted to
Pull early, pull often!
by
Rick Beach
on 14 Sep 2009
Filed under: accident history, CAPS, low IMC, aeronautical decision making, judgment, fatal accident #42, Zurich
As 2008 ends, we see some good news. Fewer fatal accidents, more CAPS saves and a decline in the fatal accident rate. The final quarter of 2008 had fewer fatal accidents than same dark months of Oct-Dec in 2007 or 2006 (3 vs 5 or 5 respectively). The last three months also had three CAPS activations...
Four seconds before impact, the passenger in N91MB pulled the CAPS handle and three people survived although the pilot perished. Four seconds earlier and maybe all would have survived! The NTSB investigators reconstructed the flight profile of N91MB and detailed the last moments of Bob Edesses and his...
Pull Early, Pull Often! That's the phrase that I posted for the first time on March 31, 2006. I encouraged Cirrus pilots to consider using the airframe parachute system, CAPS, earlier in the accident chain and more often in difficult situations. Every Cirrus aircraft has one. Yet, people were dying...