A business jet was hit by severe turbulence over New England, killing a rare passenger and forcing the plane to divert to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, officials said Saturday.
Five people were aboard the Bombardier executive jet that was shaken by turbulence late Friday afternoon while traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, said Sarah Sulick, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The extent of the damage to the plane was unclear, and the NTSB gave no details, including whether the victim was wearing a seatbelt.
The jet is owned by Conexon, a company based in Kansas City, Missouri, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database. The company, which brings high-speed internet to rural communities, declined to comment on Saturday.
NTSB investigators interviewed the two crew members and surviving passengers as part of an investigation into the deadly turbulence encounter, Sulick said. The jet’s voice and data recorders in the cockpit have been sent to NTSB headquarters for analysis, she said.
The plane shown here shortly after it made its emergency landing in Connecticut
According to Flight Aware data, the plane made the reverse trip from Leesburg to Dillant/Hopkins on Thursday.
Bradley International is located about 70 miles from Keene, New Hampshire, where the plane took off.
Turbulence, unstable air in the atmosphere, continues to be a cause of injury for airline passengers, despite improvements in airline safety over the years.
Earlier this week, seven people were injured badly enough to be taken to hospitals after a Lufthansa Airbus A330 encountered turbulence on a flight from Texas to Germany.
The plane was diverted to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey’s wife, Camila, was one of the passengers. She described it as “chaos” and added “the turbulence just kept coming.”
But deaths are extremely rare. A preliminary report will be available in two weeks.
“I can’t remember the last fatal accident due to turbulence,” said Robert Sumwalt, former NTSB chairman and executive director of the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
According to the NTSB, between 2009 and 2018, turbulence was responsible for more than a third of accidents at larger commercial airlines.
The plane was en route to Leesburg Executive Airport in the DC suburbs
The jet is owned by Conexon, a company based in Kansas City, Missouri, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database
According to Flight Aware data, the plane made the reverse trip from Leesburg to Dillant/Hopkins on Thursday
An investigation was launched in December after severe turbulence injured 36 people on board a Hawaiian Airlines, while five people were hospitalized days earlier in Houston after a second flight en route from Brazil was shaken by turbulence.
There was no evidence that the two incidents of turbulence were related. Air traffic around the world is exceptionally busy this week due to the winter holidays.
The Hawaiian Airlines flight was departing from Phoenix and on approach to Honolulu when it ran into turbulence.
Video of the aftermath shows passengers rushing to secure luggage that has fallen from overhead bins, while children can be heard in the background.
A flight attendant is heard calling over the intercom: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, attention on board: do we have trained medical personnel? Do we have doctors, nurses, firefighters?’
A total of 36 people on board the plane received medical treatment for bumps, bruises, cuts and nausea. Twenty people were taken to hospitals, eleven of them in serious condition.
“My mom wasn’t stuck and she flew up and hit the ceiling and then fell to the floor.
“There were several other people who hit their heads. When we landed, paramedics came and had to drive people out. Quite a few people had cuts on their heads and blood was dripping down,” she added.
.