BRS Chute May Have Been Deployed Too Late-- May Have Been Brought Down by Icing

Partial wreckage of a general aviation plane missing since Sunday evening was reported found Monday in the Sugar Bowl Ski Area of California, after its pilot reported he was taking on ice and going down. The Private Pilot was the sole person on board and reportedly received his IFR ticket a year ago. The aircraft was a new SR22, SR22-G2 Serial #1235, N286CD, picked up at the factory just before this most recent Christmas, December 23rd.

The Cirrus SR-22 (file photo of type, above) equipped with a TKS "weeping wings" de-icing system had departed Reno-Tahoe International Airport Sunday on its way to Novato, CA, according to officials at the Placer County, CA, Sheriff's office. Along the way, the pilot radioed Oakland Center to say that ice was forming on the wings of the aircraft and that he was 'going down.' That was the last anyone heard from him.

At about 0145 local time Monday morning, a snow groomer at a ski resort in the Sugar Bowl reported finding a parachute and aircraft debris strewn widely across at least one of the ski trails on the slopes of Mount Lincoln (above), in the southeast part of the resort. A search party consisting of Placer County deputies and some 20 ski patrol officers launched out early Monday to find the wreckage and perhaps a sign of the pilot and his passengers.

"There was a parachute found at the top of Mount Lincoln," said Kristin York, marketing manager of the ski park. She was quoted in the Sacramento Bee. "It appears the plane has crashed behind the mountain."

The BRS plane-saving parachute (responsible for four aircraft saves thus far) was found separately from the main body of the wreckage, according to Sheriff's Department Captain Rick Armstrong, who was interviewed by KRNV-TV in Reno.

"It was an airplane with an attached parachute," he said. "Unfortunately we think it was deployed too late, the airplane was going too fast and it just ripped the parachute off the plane, and we think the plane continued onto the top of Mt. Lincoln on the other side down near Onion Valley." Some media entities are quoting an unnamed FAA source as saying that the aircraft exceeded 350 mph at some point in the accident -- well beyond the limits imposed on the chute or the airframe for certification. 

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.cirrusdesign.com