The light propeller plane was filmed by onlookers floating to Earth near jungle-covered hills in the southern province of Minas Gerais, but it was saved by a device called the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System. It is not the first time Cirrus aircraft have been saved by the parachute system, which is designed primarily to save the crew but does not necessarily protect the plane from damage on impact. In 2014, a Cirrus parachute was used over Australia’s Blue Mountains, saving three crew members, with the plane dropping more than a kilometre before landing in a garden