Originally Posted by Steevo25
It could have been a very different story. The aircraft came down in a populated area that could have caused injury or death to many people on the ground (a school not too far away).
But this aircraft did come down in a populated area. It did not cause injury or death. People were quoted as saying they were 10 feet away on scaffolding. Other people were in their houses and heard the plane descend.
Why? The physics of a descent under canopy differs greatly than a forced off-airport landing.
The descent under canopy is 20 mph (or 17 knots or 1700 fpm). This is much slower than stall speed of 60 knots in a Cirrus and very much slower than a spin at 100 knots and dastardly slower than a spiral dive at Vne of 200 knots. Slower is better.
The sound of the rocket and parachute deployment was heard by people on the ground. At least two videos were taken by onlookers. They had time to recognize the location and take videos. People close by stated that they turned and looked at the plane coming straight down and missing them. BTW, at 1700 fpm descent, it takes 35 seconds to descent 1000 feet.
A vertical impact involves a much smaller footprint. It could be as small as the 40-foot diameter of the wings. A forced off-airport landing will depend upon what is struck during roll-out. Recently, a King Air impacted three houses and set them all on fire.
Finally, there was no post-impact fire. Despite fracturing the wing fuel-tanks in this accident and leaking about 100 litres of fuel, no fire (although 3 favorite koi fish died from poisoning). In fact, of all of the 34 survivable Cirrus parachute deployments, there has not been a post-impact fire.
Cheers
Rick