The pilot of a small plane that crashed into a Palatka neighborhood Tuesday deployed parachutes attached to the aircraft to ease the impact, according to authorities.
David Ross Thomas suffered minor injuries in the 11:10 a.m. crash, said Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Joel Johnson.
He sad Thomas, 62, was flying from Raleigh, N.C., to Sarasota when he reported engine failure to an air traffic controller in Jacksonville and said he was trying to make it to Palatka Municipal Airport.
Capt. Joe Wells of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said Thomas and no one on the ground was hurt when the plane went down.
The fixed-wing 2002 Cirrus SR22 crashed at Oleander Drive and Dogwood Lane on the city’s west side and landed among three homes but missed striking any, Wells said. He said the parachute system hung up in some power lines.
The aircraft, one of the biggest selling models in aviation, is the same type of single-engine plane flown by William Simon, the former CEO of Walmart, when he developed engine trouble in November and used the parachute system to land safely in the roadway in front of Fayetteville, Ark., High School.
The plane is one of the most popular aircraft in the county because of the parachute system, experts say. More than 6,000 of the aircraft have been sold since the first plane rolled off the assembly line in Duluth, Minn., in 1984. The company is owned by the Aviation Industry Corporation of American.
In Tuesday’s crash, the plane came down on the outskirts of Palatka about 2 1/2 miles from the airfield.
Palatka airport general manager John Youell said Thomas was passing Palatka when the plane got into trouble.
Youell said the parachute system on the Cirrus is activated by a pull handle on the ceiling.
“It blows a rather large parachute,” he said.
Thomas got out of the plane and was walking around but was taken to the hospital after he complained of back pain.
The Federal Aviation Administration lists Thomas’ address in Apex, near Raleigh.
Youell said a person near the crash site could hear the parachute system being activated.
“The owner of the house said it sounded like a sonic boom, so he must of deployed it very low,” Youell said of the pilot.
The plane itself was a standard-sized, recreational plane. The single-engine craft’s parachute system has made it one of the best aircraft of its kind.
(Culled from Jacksonville.com)
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