A passenger aboard a business jet lost her life after the pilots responded to automated cockpit warnings by disabling the aircraft’s stabilization system, resulting in violent up-and-down movements of the aircraft.
The aircraft was carrying three passengers and two pilots from Keene, New Hampshire to Leesburg, Virginia. Former White House official Dana Hyde, 55, along with her husband and son were the only passengers. The crew members were the pilot and co-pilot.
Dana Hyde was transported to the hospital where she died from blunt force injuries. It is unknown whether she was wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident. Her husband, son, the pilot, and the co-pilot all remained unharmed.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigated the fatal incident on March 3, stated that it was unable to determine the incident’s primary cause, but provided a list of things that went wrong before the plane lost control.
Multiple automated alerts were displayed to the pilots of the Bombardier Challenger 300 twin-engine aircraft in the cockpit. According to the NTSB’s preliminary report, the pilots followed a checklist before turning off a switch that adjusts the tail’s stabilizing system.
That’s when everything began to go badly. Before the pilots regained control, the plane’s nose swept upward, subjecting the passengers and crew to approximately four times the normal gravitational force, before pointing downward and turning upward again.
The pilots told investigators that there was no turbulence at the time of the incident, according to the NTSB’s initial assessment of the incident the following day.
Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration mandated that all pilots of the Bombardier Challenger 300 perform additional safety checks on its trim system prior to takeoff.
Bombardier stated that it was carefully reviewing the report and would continue to support and assist authorities as necessary.
Despite having over 13,000 hours of flight experience between them, the pilot and co-pilot were not very experienced with the Bombardier Challenger 300.