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System Uses Parachutes to Save Planes Wednesday, December 22, 2004 WASHINGTON — Canadian rancher Albert Kolk's small plane banked uncontrollably in darkness over the Monashee mountains, then began spiraling toward earth. 'Seat belts!' he barked to his teenage grandson and two young friends. Then he reached for a red lever in the cockpit. Suddenly, an orange-and-white parachute as big as a house opened above the plane and gently landed his stricken aircraft in a rocky clearing. If the maker of the parachute that saved Kolk's life this past spring succeeds, one day commercial aircraft like regional commuter jets may have similar safety systems. First, though, there's the challenge of creating a parachute robust enough to rescue bigger, faster planes. 'Weight and speed are always the challenge,' acknowledged Robert Nelson, chairman of Ballistic Recovery System Inc. (search), which sold about 500 of its $16,000 parachute systems this year for use by small private planes and pilots like Kolk. The company's most advanced parachute right now can accommodate nearly 4,000 pounds. While small planes can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and cruise about 175 miles per hour, regional jets weigh 80,000 pounds and fly at more than 600 miles per hour. That's why Ballistic Recovery System is working with NASA (search) — which gave it $670,000 for research — to design a new generation of emergency parachutes that would work on small jets and could be steered by pilots as they drift to the ground. Kolk, who was piloting his private plane April 8 from Seattle to his ranch in British Columbia, remembered reaching for the parachute handle as his plane slipped into a dangerous flat spin over the mountains in British Columbia, 'like how a dog chases its tail.' A seasoned pilot, Kolk said he had never experienced such a disaster in over a decade of private flying. 'I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't straighten out,' Kolk said. 'When that chute opened, it was a peacefu
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