Cirrus Airframe Parachute System -CAPS- Saves Lives - Again! Two Recent Deployments Credited with Saving 5 People.

News Editors/Business Editors

LAKELAND, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 13, 2004

In two separate incidents last week, five lives were saved by having their aircraft lowered to the ground by parachute. Both aircraft were Cirrus, the only FAA certified aircraft equipped with a rocket deployed airframe parachute that can be used in an emergency to safely lower the entire aircraft with the passengers protected in the cabin.

Last week (April 8, 2004), while traversing a desolate mountain range area near Colona, British Columbia at 11,500' MSL, Albert Kolk became the second Cirrus owner to rely on the safety failsafe of CAPS. Kolk opted to deploy CAPS in his Cirrus SR20 (Canadian registry C-GEMC) after encountering severe turbulence over the inhospitable terrain. Although the investigation is currently underway, all four people onboard (3 adults and a youth) were saved by the CAPS. The deployment over rugged terrain (with peaks reaching 9,500 MSL) at night was successful largely due to the quick decision making of the pilot who relied on his factory training to execute the second historic deployment. "We came down safe and sound and just stepped out of the airplane," stated Albert Kolk, owner and pilot of C-GEMC. "Not even a sore muscle or bruise. It's amazing."

On April 10, 2004 in a completely unrelated event, the third historic CAPS deployment occurred in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Jeff Ippoliti departed Ft. Lauderdale Executive (FEX) into instrument conditions with ceilings at 400' AGL. Once in the clouds, Ippoliti began to experience conditions that he felt made the return to the departure airport impossible. As the final measure of safety, Ippoliti informed controllers that he was "pulling the chute" and took the prescribed steps to execute another textbook deployment. Ippoliti's SR22, (N916LJ) came to rest safely approximately six miles from the airport in a wooded park. Ippoliti told reporters at the scene that the deployment and subsequent landing was a "non-event" and when asked if he would purchase another aircraft, Ippoliti exclaimed "Absolutely! Another Cirrus, I wouldn't fly anything else."

When Cirrus certified its SR20 in 1998, it became the only manufacturer in the world to offer a parachute for the aircraft as standard equipment. Cirrus' bold move to incorporate the parachute was subject to much skepticism from industry insiders who initially thought that airplanes didn't need parachutes. Nonetheless, company founders Alan and Dale Klapmeier were undeterred in their vision to make personal transportation safer. In fact, safety is one of the core values that Cirrus is founded upon.

"At Cirrus, the first measure of safety is always accident prevention," says Alan Klapmeier, president and co-founder of Cirrus. "However, regardless of how safe the Cirrus aircraft is designed to be, mechanical and human factors may eventually result in the need to rely on the CAPS as a final measure of safety." To date, there have been three documented deployments of CAPS - each occurrence was safely executed under vastly different circumstances but each had the same positive result for the aircraft occupants.

In 2002, Lionel Morrison became the first Cirrus customer to deploy the CAPS outside of the testing environment, thereby securing his place in aviation history. Morrison was on a post-maintenance flight when one of his flight controls surfaces became inoperative to the extent that he felt he could not safely land the aircraft (N1223S). Consequently, he decided that his best and safest option was the deployment of the parachute. Morrison's textbook CAPS deployment demonstrated to the world that Cirrus had ushered in a new era in aviation safety with the airframe parachute as the final measure of safety for extreme aircraft emergencies.

"Clearly the recent deployments show the obvious benefit of CAPS as potential live-saving equipment, but they also show how the CAPS works under the wide range of conditions that our aircraft routinely operate in," stated Alan Klapmeier, president and co-founder of Cirrus. "Our goal has always been to make aviation safer. And with CAPS it is safer - the real question is why aren't more companies using this technology to save lives?"

Cirrus manufactures and markets composite personal aviation aircraft, incorporating advanced technologies that result in high levels of performance, safety and comfort. Cirrus Design Corporation (www.cirrusdesign.com) based in Duluth, Minnesota, has an additional manufacturing facility in Grand Forks, North Dakota, 12 Regional Offices in the United States and sales agents strategically located throughout the world.

(Editorial Note: Complete information on Cirrus CAPS system is available at www.cirrusdesign.com or by contacting Kate Andrews at 218-428-1352.)