UK Investigators Want Better Whole Aircraft Parachute Placards

The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch has recommended that all aircraft with whole airframe parachutes be emblazoned with clearly visible and emphatic placards warning first responders of the potential danger inside. The recommendation came out of an investigation of a stall/spin crash last year in England in which the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) deployed in the crash. The accident investigation resulted in the recommendation that the pilot's inexperience and lack of recency likely contributed to the fatal accident, which resulted from a bounced touch and go and go-around attempt in a flying club SR22. The pilot hadn't flown for 54 days before taking the Cirrus up for a few trips around the patch.

It was while picking through the "severely disturbed" wreckage that the investigators noticed just how inconspicuous the standard placarding on the panel over the rocket-powered parachute is. "The only indication to an external observer that the CAPS system was fitted to this aircraft were two small placards," the report said. "These were fixed to the upper rear fuselage surface on the left and right edges of the CAPS frangible panel. From a distance and in low light conditions these placards are barely discernible and do not draw particular attention to the potential danger within." The report noted that first responders to an earlier Cirrus crash almost cut through the undeployed parachute pack during the rescue. The report says Cirrus is working on improving the placards.