Single Engine Plane Parachutes Into Pacific Over 2000 Miles Offshore
 

This is old news but as I missed it when it came out, here you go …

It involves a 25 year old pilot who had modified this single engine airplane with additional fuel tanks to be able to ferry the new aircraft to Hawaii. He was flying from LA to Hawaii, a distance of over 2500 miles over open ocean. The trouble is, he had a fuel feed problem from a tank valve malfunction resulting in this plane running out of gas forcing him to ditch. This happened when he was only 253 miles from the islands but far enough to send his craft swimming. Calling the USCG on his sat. phone he learned he was too far away from their rescue craft for them to respond immediately after he ditched. So they diverted him to the Holland America Line cruise ship "Veendam" to assist in his recovery from the sea.


https://vimeo.com/118276018

"The Cirrus SR22 pilot who pulled the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) and was saved by a cruise ship about 250 miles east of Maui this week has released a selfie video of the incident. Leu Morton's facial expression is incredibly calm despite the stressful situation and, through an open door, Morton's video shows the parachute above the airplane moments before it hits the water."

http://static1.businessinsider.com/i...-crash-map.jpg
http://www.businessinsider.com/pilot...#ixzz3PwywiOCh

"In a "Good Morning America" report, Morton describes how he used his satellite phone to report his emergency, which he described as a malfunction in the fuel system. Whether it was the airplane's fuel system or the system carrying the additional fuel required for the flight from California to Hawaii is unknown."

Continued at: http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/a...video-ditching


You can see the actual USCG video of the parachute deployment and aircraft descending under the parachute below. Considering the drift speed aloft, I was concerned the aircraft would shatter into small pieces upon impact with the water. Winds and seas were substantial Fortunately, it slowed down a great deal before contact.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCMdeU22Dk


http://www.hollandamericablog.com/wp...e1-604x387.jpg

The view from the cruise ship. An account with images from the Holland America Line appears at: http://www.hollandamericablog.com/20...pacific-ocean/


http://www.hollandamericablog.com/wp...1/Rescue21.jpg
and the pilot recovery using one of the lifeboat/tenders from the "Veendam."



https://www.cirruspilots.org/cfs-fil...deployment.jpg
The parachute system is standard in all Cirrus SR22 aircraft. "As of 24 March 2016 there have been 64 saves with 129 survivors in aircraft equipped with the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS)." They list all the events with some background on each at: https://www.cirruspilots.org/copa/sa...s-history.aspx The user guide appears at: http://cirrusaircraft.com/wp-content...CAPS_Guide.pdf