Twin Cities company saves a pilot in Arkansas

Here’s another “save” for a South St. Paul company.

It happened yesterday in Arkansas when William Simon, a former CEO of Walmart, experienced engine trouble in his airplane manufactured by Duluth-based Cirrus.

So he did what pilots of most every other type of airplane in the sky can’t do: He pulled the parachute and floated gently to terra firma.

Cirrus, deservedly, is getting all of the credit, but BRS Aerospace, a company at South St. Paul’s Fleming Field deserves a healthy share of it. They invented and make the parachute system.

The company says its parachute system has saved over 300 lives.