A California husband and wife were saved from a small plane crash along with their two-year-old child after deploying a parachute to slow the aircraft’s descent.
Deputies were alerted to a possible plane crash around 1:15 pm on March 8 in Whitehead, CA, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) said in a statement. When rescuers arrived at the scene on Usal Road, they found that the three victims—an unidentified husband and wife, both 38, and their two-year-old child—had “only suffered minor cuts and scratches” in the incident.
According to the report, a 2004 Cirrus SR22 left Shelter Cove Airport for Santa Rosa last Friday; but roughly five minutes into the 170-mile trip, the aircraft’s engine failed. “The pilot began to troubleshoot why the airplane lost engine power, but had noticed the plane’s altitude was too low for recovery,” the MCSO statement explained.
At this point, the pilot realized that their only chance of survival was the plane’s Cirrus Airframe Parachute System. They deployed the parachute, which managed to slow the plane’s fall just enough.
“It sounded like it was a last-resort effort,” Sheriff’s Office Captain Quincy Cromer told The Press Democrat of the family’s survival instincts.
The aircraft drifted into a bank of trees in a heavily wooded area, miraculously giving the family time to escape before the vessel came crashing out of the tree to the ground. The plane was completely destroyed in the impact.
“Chances of survival without the parachute were slim,” Shelter Cove’s fire chief, Nick Pape, told the outlet.
Shelter Cove’s fire department posted harrowing photos of the ordeal, including a shot of the plane in mid-air with its parachute deployed; and several showing the decimated wreckage of the aircraft lying on the forest floor.
“The coordinated response from our fellow emergency response agencies and the quick action of the witnesses played a crucial role in locating and ensuring the safety of those involved in this incident, including extinguishing a small fire,” the department wrote in their caption. “Even with the parachute the parties involved were extremely fortunate to only receive minor injuries.”
The crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board as a matter of protocol.
