A plane passenger tragically died during severe turbulence, prompting NTSB and FBI investigation, officials said on Saturday.
According to reports, there were five people aboard the Bombardier executive jet traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, when it was hit by severe turbulence over New England on Friday afternoon.
The death of the passenger forced the business jet to divert to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut.
Once the jet had landed, Connecticut State Troopers rushed to the scene and one passenger was rushed to a nearby hospital.
A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Sarah Sulick, said told Daily Mail that the FBI and NTSB are investigating the ‘facts and circumstances’ surrounding the tragedy.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration database, the plane is owned by Conexon, a company based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Sulick said that investigators were interviewing surviving passengers and two crew members as part of a probe, adding that the aircraft’s cockpit voice and data recorders were sent to NTSB headquarters.
“On 03/03/2023, at approximately 3:49 PM, Connecticut State Troopers responded to a medical assist call at Bradley International Airport. One patient was subsequently transported to an area hospital via ambulance,” a Connecticut State Police spokesperson told Daily Mail.
“Our agency is assisting as needed; however, the NTSB and the FBI are investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident. For further information please contact those agencies directly.”
Despite airline safety improvements over the years, turbulence is still a cause for injury for plane passengers.
However, deaths are extremely rare.
Robert Sumwalt, a former NTSB chair and executive director of the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said: “I can’t remember the last fatality due to turbulence.”
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