Originally Posted by
Pilot DAR
Perhaps the pilot, instead could have glided it to a forced landing less risky to people and property on the ground?
That's always a valid question, but this looks like a pretty much dense residential area, and he may have had to activate the BRS at around 500 ft AGL in order not to lose his insurance coverage, so if he pulled on minimum height, he simply had no choice remaining by that time.
https://goo.gl/maps/s7s8TDFQu34ivMzJ6
It's another valid, but even more difficult question to answer, what did he do over that residential area at such low height, that he had to pull the BRS handle eventually. This is the real mistake. While a slow descent under the chute may have reduced the risk of fatalities compared to a landing attempt on the road, on trees or someones backyard, this may not have saved him from getting a hetfy fine for violating some basic EASA rules that require aircraft on a safe height or above, where gliding to a suitable emergency landing area is possible. Having a BRS doesn't exempt from that, and if BRS is required at 500 ft AGL by manufacturer recommendation and insurance policy requirement, the pilot needs to factor this in, allowing the plane to glide to an emerency landing area at 500 ft AGL minimum, and then pulling the handle over that area. Not in the middle of a residential area.