Parachute saves light plane's passengers

VANCOUVER/ CKNW (AM980) -- Four people are alive today thanks to a
relatively new parachute system for light planes.

Captain Johann Duce of Victoria Search and Rescue says their plane went
down Thursday evening, just west of Lower Arrow Lake in the West
Kootenay, during a flight from Kelowna to Lethbridge, Alberta.

Duce says rescuers feared the worst, but the aircraft had a "BRS
recovery system" - which is a parachute that can be manually activated
by the pilot that shoots out the top of the aircraft, lowering the
aircraft to the ground. He notes it's not a gentle descent - it's about
30-kilometres an hour as it comes down. But Duce says that speed is
still survivable.

He says the four people aboard the plane were uninjured.

A Cormorant rescue helicopter from CFB Comox picked up the four and took
them back to Kelowna.

(from www.cknw.com)