Parachutes can save small planes

We've all been there (well, not really — but we've seen it on TV): a pilot bails out of his small plane at the last second, saved by his parachute, while the plane plummets out of control. And we've all probably thought, well that's a waste of a perfectly good Cesna; why don't they just hook a parachute up to the plane? (What? You weren't thinking that? Okay, so neither were we.) A Minnesota company, Ballistic Recovery Systems, has developed a parachute that is already in use in some small planes, and the company is now working with NASA to develop a next-gen system that could work with jets and let pilots steer on their way down. Aviation experts say they probably won't be able to come up with a chute that will work with big commercial jets, but that's hardly the point: in 2003 (in America we presume), 626 people died in small planes, while just 81 died in airliners.