Skill and Technology Avert Tragedy in the Skies over Cherry Creek
Stories involving the words “mid-air collision” seldom have a happy ending. A high-speed crash of aircraft thousands of feet above the ground usually results in headlines announcing a tragic death toll.
But a recent mid-air collision over Cherry Creek reservoir ended as happily as any air disaster could with all crew and passengers walking away from their heavily damaged airplanes. This happy ending to an accident that could easily have ended in tragedy for those in the air and on the ground is due to skillful piloting and a surprisingly underappreciated piece of aviation safety technology.
At about 10:25 on the morning of Wednesday, May 12th, a Swearingen Metroliner twin-turboprop and a Cirrus SR22 were on their final approach to land at Centennial Airport. The Metroliner, carrying cargo and a crew of one pilot, was cleared to land on the airport’s runway 17L. The Cirrus, carrying one pilot and one passenger, was cleared to land on the parallel runway 17R.
For reasons unknown at the time of writing, the two planes collided about three nautical miles north of the runway. Remarkably, the pilot of the Metroliner was able to continue flying and safely land at the airport even though a massive piece of his plane’s fuselage was missing.
Despite missing part of the fuselage, the pilot was able to safely land the Metroliner at Centennial Airport.
Eric Hurst, Public Information Officer for South Metro Fire Rescue, told AOPA News that the Metroliner’s post-collision path took it over populated areas, including a South Metro Fire Rescue station. If the plane had crashed it could have resulted in injuries or fatalities on the ground.
While the Metroliner could continue its landing after the collision, the situation for the Cirrus was much worse. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which released its preliminary report today, the pilot of the Cirrus radioed to Air Traffic Control that his plane was uncontrollable and that he had deployed his Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS).
Stunned bystanders in Cherry Creek Park watched as the plane gently descended, tethered to a brightly colored parachute, and came to a relatively soft landing near the intersection of Belleview Avenue and Peoria Street. The pilot and passenger both walked away from the aircraft as passers-by rushed to offer help.
CAPS is the Cirrus version of a safety system developed by BRS Aerospace. BRS stands for Ballistic Recovery System, a parachute system invented by Boris Popov in 1980 after he survived a 400-foot fall in his malfunctioning hang glider. Popov’s system uses a small solid-fuel rocket to pull the parachute from its housing in the fuselage and deploy a canopy designed to gently lower the entire aircraft to the ground.
Popov’s first recorded life save happened here in Colorado in 1983 when pilot Jay Tipton’s ultralight aircraft malfunctioned. Tipton deployed his BRS and landed safely as his wife and three-year-old daughter watched.
Cirrus partnered with BRS Aerospace in 1993 to develop a system specifically for their airplanes. The result was CAPS which became the first BRS system certified by the FAA.
To date, Cirrus is the only manufacturer that includes a parachute recovery system as standard in its aircraft. According to the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association, as of the mid-air collision over Cherry Creek on May 12th, CAPS has saved 212 lives in 104 activations since 2002.
According to Cirrus, CAPS has saved more than 200 lives since they made it standard in their aircraft.
A 2018 study by Wright State University published in the Journal of Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance studied 268 accidents and found a marked decrease in the odds of a fatality, serious injury, or post-crash fire in accidents in which CAPS was activated versus when it was not.
Despite its demonstrated efficacy, manufacturers and pilots have been slow to adopt ballistic parachute recovery systems. Dean Olson, lead author of the Wright State University study, told Air & Space Magazine he believes pilots are reluctant to give up control of their aircraft and think their piloting skills can save them. “When you pull the parachute, you become a passenger, and I don’t know if certain people really want to give up control in that situation” Olson said.
On May 12th we witnessed both piloting skill and aviation safety technology at work in the skies over Cherry Creek. Together, they saved lives in the air and on the ground. Perhaps as more people walk away from incidents that would have otherwise ended in tragedy, more pilots and manufacturers will embrace the potential of technology such as CAPS.