Windsor Locks (US-Staat Connecticut) – A business jet with five people on board encountered severe turbulence on the east coast of the United States late Friday followingnoon. A passenger died!
The Bombardier Challenger 300 business jet was en route from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, said Sarah Sulick of the US National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB).
One passenger suffered fatal injuries in the turbulence. The incident forced the pilot to make an unscheduled landing at Bradley International Airport. The authority has launched an investigation into the incident.
Again and once more injured by turbulence
Despite improvements in flight safety, turbulence – i.e. unstable air in the atmosphere – remains a common cause of injury for airline passengers. Just earlier this week, seven people were seriously injured, following a Lufthansa Airbus encountered severe turbulence on its flight from Texas to Germany. Turbulence accounted for more than a third of accidents on major commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018, according to the NTSB.
In the current incident, two crew members and the surviving passengers have been questioned regarding the course of events. In order to clarify the cause of the accident, the voice and data recorder should also be evaluated by the NTSB, said Sulick.
︎ The jet belongs to the company Conexon from Kansas City (US state of Missouri), a company from the energy and telecommunications industry. Conexon has so far refused to comment on the fatal accident. (AP/h)