'I'm planning a (heinous) act that will be remembered forever'...

[MADem]

113. Yeah, they exist--and one manufacturer says they 'might' have saved the Germanwings pax.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2015/03/28/time-for-jetliners-equipped-with-airframe-parachutes/

Airframe Parachutes Might Have Prevented The Germanwings Crash

The founder of an aerospace company dedicated to manufacturing airframe parachutes for general aviation and legacy aircraft says that eventually such technology could even guard against sabotage — virtually preventing catastrophes like this week’s Germanwings A320 crash.

Even though IATA, the global trade association for the airline industry, reassured a jittery flying public that air remains the safest way to travel, perhaps it’s time to take a hard look at airframe parachutes for commercial aircraft. That is, not for passengers buckled into the fuselage, but the aircraft itself.

“The sky is going to get more and more crowded and there are going to be even more and more accidents,” Boris Popov, Founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based BRS Aerospace, told Forbes. At some point, he says, major airframe manufacturers will be forced to include them as standard operating equipment to mitigate situations including: pilot incapacitation; mid-air collisions; mechanical failure; bird strikes; structural failure; pilot error; and even sabotage.

Since 1993, Popov’s company has been providing general aviation and a few aircraft legacy manufacturers with options for airframe parachutes. BRS notes that FAA-certified tests have shown that full parachute inflation could occur at altitudes as low as 260 feet and, thus far, notes that aircraft using his system have saved well over three hundred lives.....

A recent BRS airframe parachute deployment during an airshow in Argentina. The pilot walked away unhurt. Credit: BRS Aerospace

I think it's something they need to move towards, I've felt this way for some time--maybe this will be the impetus to get cracking.