Video of a small four-seat plane gliding to safety, guarded by its large emergency parachute, has left amazed viewers wondering how the life-saving device actually works.
A family of three – Artem Konokuk, 38, his partner and their two-year-old daughter – landed in the woods of Whitehorn, California, on March 8, after Konokuk realized his training flight was not he had clearance to climb over a steep tree. bordered hill.
The 20-year-old plane, a Cirrus SR22, featured the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS): a giant parachute made of bulletproof Kevlar, capable of carrying an entire single-engine craft safely to Earth.
Once initiated, CAPS launches its parachute rearward from the top of the craft at high speed, powered by a solid-state chemical fuel-powered “rocket motor.”
The young Konokuk family escaped with cuts and bruises, which the captain of the nearby Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office described as “a miracle.”
Video of a small four-seat plane gliding to safety, guarded by its large emergency parachute, has left amazed viewers wondering how the life-saving device actually works.
The Cirrus CAPS is described as an aircraft-wide emergency recovery parachute system.
During an in-flight emergency, the pilot or co-pilot can deploy the solid-fuel rocket from a hidden compartment where the parachute is stored, with the simple pull of a lever.
The rocket quickly pulls the parachute rearward from the rear of the plane, deploying the system’s 65-foot-diameter canopy in seconds.
The parachute canopy fabric is all Kevlar (like body armor) and nylon, “woven to military specifications,” including “thread count, thread twist, weave type, and finish.”
One portion, a fabric protector, uses Teflon “to ensure good aging characteristics,” the company notes, a crucial design consideration for emergency gear that can remain packed and unused for long periods.
The family of three aboard this Cirrus SR22 small plane escaped with only a few cuts and bruises when their parachute deployed over California last Friday.
Above, a schematic from the Cirrus CAPS manual shows the packaged and deployed components of your parachute system assembly and the location of your string cutters.
The built-in CAPS aircraft parachute and its harness straps are stored within the fuselage or body of the aircraft. Eight seconds after initial deployment, components known as “reef line cutters” reorient the parachute’s relationship to the aircraft.
Cirrus Aircraft safety literature says the parachute can reduce the plane’s ground speed to zero in just eight seconds, preventing not only a crash on the ground, but also potentially impacts with vertical surfaces such as cliffs or buildings.
The built-in CAPS aircraft parachute and its harness straps are stored within the fuselage or body of the aircraft.
Eight seconds after initial deployment, components known as “cable cutters” reorient the parachute’s relationship with the aircraft.
The line cutters bring the aircraft to the level position under the parachute, from its “nose-low initial position” just after CAPS deployment.
The rocket motor (above, top left) carries the parachute rearward from the rear of the aircraft, pulling the integrated CAPS aircraft harness straps (right) from the fuselage or body. Within seconds, the 65-foot-diameter canopy deploys, controlling the aircraft’s descent speed.
The Cirrus SR22 has a plane-wide emergency recovery parachute system, called the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). During an in-flight emergency, the pilot can deploy a solid-fuel rocket from a hatch that covers a hidden compartment where the parachute is stored.
The change keeps passengers “right side up” for a safer crash landing, rather than a slow but head-on collision with the ground.
As of this time last year, March 2023, 253 survivors have been returned to their families thanks to the company’s innovative rocket-launched parachute.
Cirrus has installed parachutes for its four-seat SR22s since 1998, when it first partnered with Minnesota-based inventor Boris Popov, creator of the ballistic aircraft parachute.
“These are usually worst-case scenarios,” Capt. Quincy Cromer of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said of the incident.
“The fact that they only had minor scratches and abrasions is a miracle.”
Countless first responders arrived at the wilderness crash site on Friday, according to Los Angeles Timesincluding the Humboldt County Sheriff, California Highway Patrol, Southern Humboldt Tech Rescue and several local fire departments.
Rescuers watched in amazement as their single-engine plane drifted across a valley hanging helplessly under the emergency parachute before coming to rest in a tree.
The four-seat plane stopped in a tree before crashing upside down.
The structure of the plane was destroyed by the impact despite the parachute.
The Konokuk family was headed on a 170-mile trip up the coast to Santa Rosa, where they have a home, when the SR22’s only engine died at 1:15 p.m. Friday.
“The pilot began investigating why the plane lost engine power,” local sheriffs noted in their statement, “but noted that the plane’s altitude was too low to recover.”
“At this point, the pilot deployed the aircraft’s Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), which slowed the aircraft’s descent.”
But the family’s ordeal was far from over: The plane became trapped high in the branches of a tree 100 feet above the forest floor.
“The parachute carried the plane until it finally crashed into trees in a heavily wooded area of Yellow Road in Whitethorn,” local sheriffs said.
Rescuers feared the worst as they made their way through the thick forest to reach the family.
Somehow, the family managed to get out and down the tree without the precipitously balanced Cirrus plane falling on top of them.
Rescuers rushed through the woods and upon arrival discovered the family nursing their wounds safely on the ground, with the 2,200-pound plane now twisted into metal, crumpled, open and upside down on the ground next to them.
His tail was completely detached and the parachute that saved his life was still in the treetops above.
Dozens of residents reported the accident to local police, and some also posted what they knew on social media.
‘This happened right behind my parents’ house, like 75 meters away!’ wrote Amy Arnesen McOmber on Facebook.
“The plane crashed on its own in the green belt behind their house, which we used to call the pipeline trail.”
Cirrus Aircraft co-founder Alan Klapmeier first decided to develop an entire aircraft parachute after surviving a mid-air collision in 1985.
Klapmeier was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame ten years ago in recognition of his efforts.
DailyMail.com has contacted Cirrus Aircraft offices across the country, as well as the company’s director of aviation safety, Chris Glaeser, and its chief engineer, Paul Johnston.