"Darkwing" theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote in message
...
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=5334340

Here is more, the pilot died. Sounds like the chute wasn't fully open and
working when the plane hit which explains why the cockpit is such a mess.

From that link, it strongly suggests that the parachute was in fact deployed
only at the last minute. That would easily allow for the possibility of the
pilot having intentionally avoided the residences.

Of course, none of that explains why the pilot thought to use the parachute
at all, if the airplane was still reasonably controllable. A controlled
landing, even in the water, would likely have allowed everyone to survive,
including the pilot.

I'm not against the use of the BRS, but I have to admit this event appears
at least initially to be a good example of how having a BRS installed
complicates the emergency decision-making, and how it offers a new way for
the pilot to screw up that decision-making. Seems like the two valid
choices are "deploy the parachute with sufficient altitude for it to be
useful" or "fly the airplane and attempt an emergency landing", while the
pilot chose a third invalid choice of "attempt to deploy the parachute too
late, failing to provide a safe descent rate while preventing effective
control of the airplane during the landing".

Pete