Plane parachute saves Santa Rosa family in Mendocino County crash

A three-person family from Santa Rosa suffered minor cuts and scratches Friday after the plane they were in crash-landed into a forested area in Mendocino County, officials said Sunday.

A woman and man, both 38, and their 2-year-old daughter were the only occupants of a small, single-engine aircraft that began to lose altitude just before 1:15 p.m. Friday, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Justin D'Orazio said in a news release.

The 2004 Cirrus SR22 took off earlier that day from the Shelter Cove Airport for Santa Rosa, Shelter Cove Fire Chief Nick Pape said Sunday. The aircraft’s engine lost power about five minutes after takeoff, officials said.

Located in Whitethorn, California, Shelter Cove is a regional airport about 170 miles northwest of Santa Rosa.

After the plane’s engine failed and there was a determination its trajectory was too low for recovery, the pilot, who was the man, deployed a parachute that slowed the aircraft’s descent.

“It sounded like it was a last-resort effort,” Sheriff’s Office Capt. Quincy Cromer said Monday.

“Chances of survival without the parachute were slim,” Pape said.

The aircraft eventually came down into trees in a heavily wooded area near the 77000 block of Yellow Road in Whitethorn, D’Orazio said.

The three occupants were able to get themselves out of the plane, which eventually fell to the ground, Pape said. The aircraft was destroyed.

In photos of the crash site, taken by the Shelter Cove Fire Department, the parachute appears to be snagged on branches high above the ground, where the crumpled plane rests on its roof.

Cromer said normally when the Sheriff’s Office gets called to a plane crash, officials assume the worst. However, “this one had a different ending,” he said, attributing the survival of the three occupants to the parachute system.

About eight months ago, another small plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean just north of the Shelter Cove Airport, Pape said.

Two people who had been in the plane were found in the water among wreckage about 80 to 200 yards offshore of Little Black Sands Beach, a Shelter Cove Fire Department release said.

One made it back without assistance. The second person was pulled from the water by a Shelter Cove fire Jet Ski and rescue swimmer.

Both people were taken to hospitals to be treated for moderate injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, per aircraft accident protocols.

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @madi.smals.