Pilot from Worcester recounts N. Carolina crash

Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA)

The man who survived a small airplane crash in North Carolina Thursday after taking off from Southbridge Airport is an experienced pilot from Worcester who founded a Fitchburg air taxi service.

"I couldn't have asked for a better outcome," said Ken Brown, 66, whose entire airplane floated to safety via a built-in aircraft parachute he deployed after the craft's engine died.

Brown, who founded Skyline Flight, a local personal air taxi service, in 2007, was at a bit of a loss to describe the feeling of floating through the air in a plane held up by a parachute.

"Deliberate and somewhat intense," he settled on after a few moments. "It was really amazing."

The trouble on Thursday's flight to Florida – where Brown stays for the winter - started out of nowhere. At around 10 a.m., Brown and his wife of 38 years, Becca, were sitting up front as always, with their two Goldendoodles, Willa and Abby, sprawled on the floor.

"It's as though we turned off the key," Brown said of the moment the engine went quiet. "It stopped producing thrust."

The couple was flying at about 6,500 feet – commercial airplanes fly upward of 30,000 feet – but, Brown explained, still had some time to think.

"It's not like you turn into a bowling ball and head into Earth," he said, "You have a little bit of time."

Brown said he could have glided into an airport if there was one nearby, but that wasn't an option in the rural stretch of North Carolina over which his plane was flying.

He said he called air traffic control and talked through his options– he was considering trying to land in a field – and ultimately decided, within about three minutes, to pull the chute.

"I've never experienced anything like it," he said. "The parachute kind of takes control of your life."

Deploying the parachute caused a jolt – kind of like slamming the brakes in the car, he said – but didn't hurt human or beast.

"They just kind of took it – they were just fine," Brown said of his dogs, ages 9 and 7 ½.

As the plane, a Cirrus SR22, drifted toward the ground, it got tangled in some trees, and ended up dangling, nose downward, about five feet or so from the ground in Kenansville (pop. 855).

The owner of the property got a ladder and helped everyone climb to safety.

"I am so utterly impressed with the machine," said Brown, whose wife told a local ABC station in North Carolina that she, too, was confident its parachute would save them.

The SR22, unlike many competitors, comes with a whole-plane parachute stock, and the parachutes have been used at least 92 times, according to the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association.

Brown, who started Skyline Flight with one SR22 in 2007 and sold the company in 2017, said he always saw the parachute as a major selling point.

"I am more confident now (in the plane) than I would have been before," he said, despite the engine failure.

Brown, who estimated having about 3,800 hours in the air, still flies SR22s for Skyline. The SR22 he piloted Thursday was a company plane that he rented for personal use.

Richard J. Corley, who bought Skyline from Brown, said Friday he also sees Thursday's incident as proof of the aircraft's strength.

"I think this goes to show that the Cirrus aircraft is probably one of the safest aircraft in the sky today," he said.

Coast Guard video posted online shows a Cirrus SR22 landing near Maui in 2015 after a pilot who ran out of fuel successfully landed the craft in the ocean.

Skyline, which is based in Stow but flies most of its planes out of Fitchburg Regional Airport, exclusively uses parachute-outfitted SR22s in its fleet, which serves mostly high-end travelers.

"You hope you never use it, but if you have to, it's a nice security blanket to have," said Corley, who also mentioned the perk in a 2018 article about his company.

Corley said the company hasn't had trouble with an engine like this in 12 years flying, and is confident federal authorities will get to the bottom of what happened.

The plane that went down Thursday – one of eight SR22s Skyline operates – is Skyline's oldest model, from 2006.

Brown said he isn't sure what went wrong, but noted the age of the plane doesn't indicate the age of the engine, as he said federal regulations require engines to be overhauled or replaced every 2,000 hours.

Brown, a father of three who lives near Indian Lake in Worcester, had to rent a car to get to Florida, where he owns a business that stores classic cars – another passion.

Asked how the two will get back to Worcester at winter's end, Brown said he wasn't sure, but hoped it would be in a cockpit.

"If I can find somebody to give me a plane," he said, "I'll fly it back."

Contact Brad Petrishen at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BPetrishenTG.

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