Despite early statements from officials that severe turbulence contributed to the death of a former White House official on a flight earlier this month, a preliminary federal investigation found a jolt to the aircraft came when pilots switched off a stabilizing system in response to alerts from the aircraft.
Faced with multiple advisory messages after takeoff on the afternoon of March 3, the pilots followed a procedural checklist and turned off the plane’s stabilizer trim switch, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board found.
The plane — a small, twin-engine Bombardier Challenger 300 jet — abruptly lurched nose-up multiple times before the pilots regained control and turned the stabilizer switch back on, the NTSB report said.
The sudden movement fatally injured passenger Dana Hyde, 55, who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations and was counsel to the 9/11 Commission, according to the Associated Press.
She was one of five people, including two pilots, on board the small plane, and according to the AP was traveling with her husband and son. None of the other passengers or crew were injured.
The flight, which had left Keene, New Hampshire, en route to Leesburg, Virginia, diverted to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, where emergency responders were waiting. Hyde, of Cabin John, Maryland, later died at a nearby hospital, officials said.
A Southwest plane lands at Bradley Internal Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. (Don Treeger / The Republican)
An NTSB spokesperson said the day after the incident that the airplane faced a “severe turbulence event.”
Before leaving New Hampshire, the pilots aborted takeoff after one pilot noticed a cover over a device measuring airspeed had not been removed, the NTSB report said.
The report said the plane then issued an advisory message regarding the rudder, but that the pilots determined it was safe to take off.
As the plane climbed to several thousand feet, it issued multiple alert messages, including for “autopilot stabilizer trim failure.”
As the pilots moved through a checklist to correct the issue, they followed instructions to turn the stabilizer trim switch off.
The airplane “abruptly” jolted up and down, during which Hyde was injured, the NSTB report said.
The two pilots, who were not named in the report, respectively had more than 8,000 and 5,000 hours of flight experience. They were approved to fly the Challenger 300 in October, the report said.