Are Parachutes Necessary in Airplanes?

Published by Dorian Loveday on February 23, 2022February 23, 2022

Do normal pilots wear parachutes? Short answer, no! 

Long answer, as follows. As much as you might think a parachute would come in handy in an emergency, it’s kind of a one in a million chance of ever needing one. We could compare it to wearing a helmet in a car. Sure it’s ‘safer’ but it’s more of an inconvenience than it is a help. 

Parachutes are bulky, uncomfortable, and basically a pain to carry around with you for general flying. Parachutes also require extensive training, so having random people jumping out of airplanes would likely cause a lot of injuries when people get to the ground.

The majority of incidents and accidents with small general aviation airplanes are not situations where you would ever use a parachute. They are often very close to the ground making a jump useless even with a parachute. But even without engine power, you will be able to land your plane, like a glider. In a field, a road, or even a lake. And for commercial airliners, the likelihood of evacuating a large amount of people in such a short time is almost impossible.

When an emergency happens to your airplane or a passenger, the first priority is to land the plane safely. If you just jumped out of your airplane whenever you had a problem, there’d be random planes falling out of the sky all over the place. And you wouldn’t have a plane anymore. That would be sad and (obviously) dangerous. Even if you ‘crash land’ your plane in a field, at least there’s a chance you could fix it up and use it again.

There are exceptions to this. Fighter pilots for example, have ejector seats, which rocket them out of harm’s way super fast and then let them float towards the ground relatively safely. With a fighter jet though, the problems you face are quite different from what can happen with a little Cessna. As you could imagine.

Aerobatic pilots as well may use a parachute, because there’s a higher likelihood that there could be structural damage to a wing or something. Or a control surface could stop working and the airplane could become uncontrollable. These are instances where a parachute would be helpful. But it is extremely rare, especially when flying a normal airplane in general aviation.

Another option for some small aircraft and ultralights, is a parachute for the whole airplane. You stay seated and when you deploy the chute, the whole aircraft floats to the ground.

Pilots are extensively trained on how to safely land in an emergency situation. As a normal general aviation pilot, the inherent safety training involved with getting your licence should eliminate a lot of potential problems. And out of the issues left over, you’re extremely unlikely to need to land the airplane in a field. So a time when you would want a parachute likely will never happen to the vast majority of pilots out there.

As far as my flying, so far I have never once worn a parachute. Here is a link to a video from one of my favourite pilot Youtubers, Trent Palmer, who gives some great thoughts on the controversial Trevor Jacob incident and whether or not a parachute is necesary.