Light aircraft down in channel

[CAPP0]

Beeb reported this briefly yesterday evening, and followed up with this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23402222

Horrible situation for all. Just wondering how it came to ditch, apparently about 15 miles off Dungeness. Have to assume that all was fine when he left the coast, and I'm guessing from his apparent route that he was already looking for a shorter route across open water. What would he have been at - 5000ft? What's the glide ratio on a light plane. Seemingly not 15:1.....

Edit: more here: http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/519613-aircra...

Edited by CAPP0 on Monday 22 July 16:38

[Eric Mc]

As soon as the BBC said it was American registered I immediately thought "Cirrus".

[CAPP0]

Is that the one with the parachute which seems to crash (or, seems to have it's emergency equipment deployed!) a little more often than some other makes?

[Eric Mc]

It is the one with the parachute but it doesn't have a particularly bad safety record.

[onyx39]

CAPP0 said:

Is that the one with the parachute which seems to crash (or, seems to have it's emergency equipment deployed!) a little more often than some other makes?

It probably just makes the news more often.