I do know that info on the ATIS said there was no radar surveillance service available on Thursday at EGBJ as was flying that day.
From what I have heard, the parachute saved the pilot's life.
Doesn't this Cirrus have the special button which you press when you have totally lost it, and it levels the plane up for you?
Most curiously, the company which is widely known to maintain most Cirruses in the UK has gone public with this statement:
"At the time of the incident all aircraft systems were working correctly, the pilot ran into Navigational difficulties and elected to use the CAPS system."
I don't know what one can read from it, and one might wonder why they felt they need to make a statement, but it sounds like they spoke to the pilot.
Unfortunately this kind of thing, especially in an N-reg, is great grist to the mill of the usual prejudices against IFR GA especially the N-reg community.
Don't you just love the bias in the BBC comentary when they report "the pilot who is 76 years old" etc the implication being, what is that old git doing flying an aereoplane? Being an old git pilot myself I would prefer it if they said "the pilot who was very experienced"!!
The Level (LVL) button is not in every Cirrus, but only in those with either the Garmin Perspective / G1000 system or the DFC90 or 100 autopilot is in the aircraft (the latter with the Avidyne system). The standard procedure is to pull the chute and not try to make an emergency landing. If you are already low, pressing the LVL button might not help in time and waiting to pull the chute so you can first try the LVL button might not be the better option.
The CAPS system definitely saves the live of about all the pilots that have used it. It is even considered better than to make an emergency landing.
This news article, while written (as they usually are) in extremely poor manner, contains potentially interesting eyewitness reports:
She said: ”I was hanging up my washing at the time and I could hear the plane in the distance and suddenly it sounded like the plane exhaust had gone and it was blowing really loudly.
"As I looked up, I could see the plane release its parachute.
“I was walking my dog around Warden Hill area and saw a light aircraft flying low. It was clearly struggling and before I could see anymore, it disappeared down.
“A red light or flag came out of it as it was flying.”
“I saw it flying quite low and I thought it was getting into to trouble. Then suddenly it started descending.
"I saw a parachute open and just heard a huge crash.”
That's 3 people saying they saw the chute open, which suggests the pilot did not pull it while having problems in IMC.
We then have the public statement from RGV, UK's main Cirrus dealer:
"At the time of the incident all aircraft systems were working correctly, the pilot ran into Navigational difficulties and elected to use the CAPS system."
The final report on this one will probably be quite interesting...
I assume there is a period before it is deployed that could explain how they saw it. Particularly if he is descending. I understand he lost control in IMC during an approach change while hand flying.
The CAPS system deploys in about 3-4 seconds from pull to fully open parachute.
The AAIB report has been issued.
With significant pitch and roll excursions, evidently a CAP pull was the right thing to do. But surely one has to question how the pilot got so far behind the aircraft in the first place, and why he elected to exercise his IR privileges, if a runway change and being held high by Brize (a common occurrence) was enough to overload him.
Looks like a lack of understanding of automation followed by an inability to hold straight and level flight by hand flying. No idea why the S&L button wasn’t just pressed.
