The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System also known as CAPS provides the Cirrus aircraft with an additional level of safety. It is not guaranteed to save the occupants in the event of an accident, but it definitely provides another option, where as no other aircraft on the market can.
As of January 30, 2001, there have been 29 known CAPS activations. Of those activations, 26 deployments are considered to have been "saves" that involved 50 survivors with one fatality. This figure also does not include the one unborn child who was also saved in CAPS pull #13. There were four other activations however that were not successful deployments, resulting in five fatalities and two serious injuries. The four unsuccessful deployments involved one activation at very high speed (likely in excess of 270 knots, twice the deployment speed), one activation at too low an altitude to fully inflate the canopy (witnesses report 50 to 200 feet above ground), another activation where the rocket took an unusual trajectory resulting in a failure to extract the parachute, and a mid-air collision where the parachute was likely activated by impact forces. The rocket trajectory anomaly was investigated and an airworthiness directive was published requiring a modification of the CAPS rocket assembly. Although any loss of life is tragic, 50 "saves" is pretty amazing and thanks to this new safety measure, that is 50 less fatalities in General Aviation.
For more information on each individual accident, please go to
http://www.cirruspilots.org/Content/CAPSHistory.aspx
