[Lazamataz]

If you aren't aware of these yet, you should be.

[demlosers]

The families said the pilot, a plastic surgeon who bought the plane six days earlier, tried to open the parachute but it failed.

Do doctors have a high crash rate?

[Balding_Eagle]

$16,000 for a parachute. Seems like a lot. I'll bet at $4,000 or more gets set aside into a Successful Lawyers Account.

It's reserved for 'hired guns' to protect the company from lawyers who don't care how much they stifle innovation or who they hurt in their quest for the combination to the company bank account. Much like bank robbers of old, we ought to start killing them as they ride into town.

[xcamel]

I had BRS (3) systems on all of my ultralights - cheap insurance indeed, but nothing is perfect. Anything that increases your chances of surviving a catastrophic failure or uncontrolled flight condition is a good thing.

[Dead Dog]

I used to be completely against these things. Thinking they are only good for structural failure and therefore the cost/risk assessment didn't pan out. I've since reconsidered that opinion, however I'm still not sure. Especially after reading the fallowing...

""People are crazy not to fly with them," said William Graham of San Diego, an instructor pilot whose plane landed beneath a parachute this spring near Stockton, Calif., after it unexpectedly flipped upside down at 16,000 feet. Graham"

This statement raises an eyebrow. 16k and he can't just continue the roll to upright. It ain't like he overturned a canoe in the Bearing Sea. Did they hit Clear air Turbulence and get rolled, then pull the "Oh Sh!t Handle???"

I hope were not getting the whole story.

[spodefly]

BTTT

[GreenHornet]

I know nothing about aviation, but if I'm not mistaken, don't most plane crashes occur either shortly after takeoff, or as the plane is landing? If that's the case, it seems to me that, by the time the pilot realizes that a crash is imminent, there would not enough time for the parachute to be deployed. Also, the plane would be too low at that point for a parachute to be effective.

[hattend]

The emergency parachutes aren't flawless. Two families in Syracuse, N.Y., are suing Cirrus, Ballistic Recovery Systems and others for a combined $67.5 million over a fatal crash in April 2002. The case is pending in federal court.

The families said the pilot, a plastic surgeon who bought the plane six days earlier, tried to open the parachute but it failed. Defense lawyers have denied the system malfunctioned, and federal investigators concluded the parachute never opened "for undetermined reasons."

Sheesh. If the plane had not been equipped with a chute wouldn't the guy be just as dead? Seems like the lawyers needed another plaintiff as the plane manufacturer doesn't have deep enough pockets.