Wasn't AN-2 the plane where the manual advises that if you need to land and cannot see your landing site, you should fly low and slow and intentionally stall the plane?
I don't know but that would make sense, landing at the speed of a parachute is better than crashing. Not sure on the exact numbers but a parachute sink rate of 5m/s is over the usual landing touch down sink rate of 1m/s. I would guess at that rate there might still be some damage to crew and airframe. If done skillfully I would image it would be possible to trade some forward speed for a slower sink rate right before touchdown to make for much softer landing.
