Cirrus company's parachute technology being recognized nationally after collision near Denver
May 14—A company with headquarters in Duluth, Minn., and with a large factory in Grand Forks is receiving national recognition in the news after a midair collision near Denver.
While one of the two airplanes involved in the Wednesday crash landed on its own, the other safely reached the ground with the aid of a parachute that comes standard for craft produced by Cirrus.
"Take a look at this: A parachute helping this plane land after a rare midair collision," reported ABC news correspondent Kaylee Hartung, who called it a "remarkable sight."
"It's so unusual to see a parachute like that because Cirrus, the manufacturer, is the only one building airplanes with them," Hartung reported during a Thursday segment on Good Morning America.
No one was injured when a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner cargo plane and the Cirrus SR 22 single engine plane collided as both were preparing to land, according to various news sources. The pilot of the Metroliner was able to land safely despite significant damage to the plane's tail section; the pilot of the Cirrus aircraft, which also included a passenger, was able to activate the plane's parachute system, and both people were able to walk away from the accident. Video shown on multiple national news networks showed the damaged plane floating slowly, under a deployed parachute, into a rural field.
"Cirrus Aircraft was the first and remains the only manufacturer to include a whole-airframe parachute safety system as standard equipment on a certified aircraft," Ben Kowalski, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Cirrus Aircraft, said in a news release.
Including Wednesday's midair collision, the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) has been deployed 103 times, saving more than 200 people, according to data provided by Cirrus. CAPS has been included in the SR series of aircraft since 1999, and is now a standard on all Cirrus aircraft, according to the company. There are more than 8,000 SR Series aircraft and 300 of the company's Vision Jets in use worldwide.
"To date, worldwide flight time on Cirrus aircraft has passed 11 million hours, and 209 people have returned home safely to their families as a result of the inclusion of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System as a standard feature on all Cirrus aircraft," said Kowalski.
According to ABC, the owner of the SR 22 involved in the collision is not known. The SR series of airplanes is sold as personal aircraft, and used in general aviation activities.
Cirrus Aircraft is headquartered in Duluth and has a manufacturing facility in Grand Forks, as well as in Tennessee and Texas. In December 2019, the company suddenly paid off $800,000 in loans to the Jobs Development Authority of Grand Forks. The loans were for upgrades to the then-city owned facility in the industrial park, which Cirrus was leasing. The company then bought that facility for $1.9 million in November of 2020.
In 2019, the company experienced record growth, after having sold more than 80 Vision Jets and 384 SR Series aircraft. According to a February report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the company saw its sales decline by 10% in the early days of the pandemic, but sales rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
