Just getting back to the "stats" regarding your chances of surviving a forced landing after engine failure in this case, or deploying the chute.
"As of 22 November 2012, the CAPS has been activated 32 times with 63 survivors and 11 fatalities in equipped aircraft." Wiki.
They say in all cases where the CAPS was activated within operating limits everyone survived, hence the 100% safety record. They don't seem to count the fatality(s) in one accident where the launch rocket malfunctioned?
I imagine the NTSB data base which someone referred to, in which it gives a 1 in 5 chance of a fatality, would be based on thousands of cases over many years.
Is it a fair to say deploying the chute, rather than carrying out a normal forced landing, is always the safest option based on these one sided statistics?
Personally my old school thinking and training would have me attempting to land the aircraft, I think I would go for the chute option only in the most hopeless situation. (not that I will ever find myself in a CAPS equipped Cirrus anyway)
I have no problem with the pilot deploying the chute in this case, his decision and they both walked away, can't argue with that, but others may have landed the aircraft with an equally good outcome. It's just the stats I have trouble accepting.