One dead after severe turbulence hits private jet, US authorities investigate

One passenger suffered "fatal injuries" in turbulence, aboard the Bombardier CL30. Photo / Niklas Jonasson, Unsplash

One person is reported dead after severe turbulence hit a private passenger jet, which was forced to divert to Connecticut this weekend.

The Bombardier Challenger 300 was en route from a private airfield in New Hampshire to Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia on Friday evening, when it was affected by “severe turbulence”.  It was forced to divert to Bradley International, landing at 4pm.

On Sunday the US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that the turbulence had resulted in “fatal injuries” for one of the passengers. In a statement to USA TODAY the NTSB said the CL30 was carrying three passengers and two crew.

The aviation safety body is currently investigating what factors resulted in this death in coordination with the FAA and FBI.

On Monday the NTSB said that it was looking into a “reported trim issue” with the plane, which may have resulted in the plane struggling to remain stable in flight.

“Investigators have removed the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and are continuing to gather information from the flight crew, operator and other passengers,” said investigators.

Local police named the deceased passenger as Dana Hyde, 55. She was a former State Department employee and Maryland resident, according to CNN.

Death by Turbulence

Turbulence, caused by erratic air currents is not unusual, however injuries or deaths are extremely rare.

From 2009 to 2021, 146 passengers aboard regularly scheduled commercial flights reported ‘serious injury’ from turbulence, says the US FAA. 80 per cent of these are injuries to cabin crew.

According to the data, most accidents occur when passengers are not wearing a seatbelt.

The statistics are quite different when private aircraft and business jets are taken into the equation.

There have been no turbulence related deaths aboard commercial airliners in the past ten years. Whereas there have been 38 deaths aboard privately owned (part 91) aircraft in turbulence-related incidents.  In most cases these account for fatal crashes where turbulence was found to have been a factor.

Last Wednesday seven passengers were taken to hospital after their Lufthansa flight to LH469 encountered an “unanticipated” storm pattern.

The airline said the flight “encountered brief but severe turbulence about 90 minutes after takeoff,” before making “an unscheduled landing at Washington Dulles International Airport as a precautionary measure.”

This turbulence occurred mid meal service and there were reports that some passengers, who were not wearing seatbelts, hit the cabin roof.