The G36 Bonanza’s closest competitor is probably the Cirrus SR22. Would the outcome of this accident have been different had the Beechcraft been equipped with a ballistic parachute system, like the system installed in the Cirrus, depicted here? Probably not. For the Cirrus’ ballistic parachute to work, the plane needs at least 400 feet of altitude. Although we don’t know how high N618MW climbed before its engine quit, it’s unlikely it reached 400 feet. That’s an altitude the aircraft probably wouldn’t have achieved until well after crossing the end of the runway. As this illustration shows, the Bonanza never made it that far.
The NTSB has now released its Preliminary Report. The report can be found here. There’s no new information in the report, and certainly nothing that causes us to rethink the analysis we wrote about here.
As usual, the NTSB report contains no conclusion concerning the cause of the crash. For that, we have to wait until the NTSB issues its Probable Cause report. Some news sources, such as the one here, are reporting that the probable cause report will be issued in the next 6 to 9 months. That’s doubtful. Except in the simplest of cases, it takes the NTSB at least 18 months to issue its probable cause report. Sometimes, it can take as long as four years.