Ken Brown credited a parachute attached to the plane with saving the family’s “bacon," as it allowed the plane to safely stop in some trees just feet above the ground.
It's unclear what caused the plane to go down. Ken Brown said the flight seemed average right up until he heard silence.
"About as boring as you can get, and then there was silence," he told WCTI. "The engine quit and beyond a couple of things to figure out why, there's nothing you can do other than find where you are going to end up."
The Cirrus SR22 had taken off from the Southbridge Municipal Airport in Massachusetts and was heading to Venice Municipal Airport in Florida when it crashed in the grove of trees in Kenansville, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The couple had planned to refuel in Elizabethtown, Ken Brown said.
Cirrus said it is the only aircraft manufacturer to offer a parachute system. The parachute is deployed by the pilot and is fueled by a solid-fuel rocket. The crash is then absorbed by specialized landing gear, a roll cage and energy-absorbing seats.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
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