Bombardier Jet Passenger Dies From Severe Turbelence On Flight To VA

The woman who was killed last week after the business jet she was on encountered severe turbulence over New England was identified Monday.

Connecticut State Troopers released the name of Maryland lawyer Dana Hyde, NBC News reported.

The 55-year-old was pronounced dead at Saint Francis Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut following her flight’s emergency landing at Bradley International Airport Friday.

She was among the five people who were aboard a private Bombardier Challenger 300 jet that encountered heavy turbulence while en route to Leesburg, Virginia, from Keene, New Hampshire.

Hyde, of Cabin John, Maryland, died from injuries she sustained during Friday’s incident, Fox Business reported.

Neither of the two other passengers Hyde was with at the time, who were identified by The Washington Post as her husband and one of her sons, nor the two members of the flight crew were injured, according to the aircraft’s owner, rural area broadband consulting firm Conexon, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“We can confirm that the aircraft was owned by Conexon and that Dana Hyde was the wife of Conexon partner Jonathan Chambers. Jonathan and his son were on the flight also and not injured in the incident,” Conexon spokesperson Abby Carere said in an email, according to another NBC News report.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently looking at a “reported trim issue” with the aircraft Hyde was on, the agency said, referring to adjustments that are made to an airplane’s control surfaces to ensure it is stable and level in flight.

The FAA instructed pilots who were flying the same jet model to take extra pre-flight measures last year after trim problems had been reported.

Investigators will have more information after they have analyzed the plane’s flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and other information, the NTSB said.

Investigators with the agency were also interviewing the two crew members and two passengers to see, among other things, whether they were wearing seat belts when the plane was hit by turbulence.

The NTSB plans to issue a preliminary report in two to three weeks, agency spokesperson Sarah Sulick said.

Hyde was the co-chair of the Aspen Institute’s Partnership for an Inclusive Economy, her LinkedIn page reportedly showed.

She previously served as a special assistant to the president for cabinet affairs and a special assistant to the deputy U.S. attorney general during former President Bill Clinton’s administration.

Hyde was also a senior policy adviser at the State Department and associate director at the Office of Management and Budget during former President Barack Obama‘s administration.

Turbulence, or unstable air in the atmosphere, reportedly remains a cause for injury for airline passengers despite safety improvements over the years.

The phenomenon caused 30 injuries and zero deaths between 2009 and 2020, the FAA said in December.