(CNN) A former White House official died as a result of severe turbulence on a private jet that was diverted to Connecticut on Friday, authorities and the public résumé of the late woman said.
A Bombardier CL30 jet departing from Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene, New Hampshire for Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia was diverted to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks around 4 p.m. Friday after “encountering severe turbulence.” , the Federal Aviation Administration wrote in a statement to CNN.
This turbulence “resulted in fatal injuries” to a passenger who The National Transportation Safety Board wrote on Twitter.
Three passengers and two crew members were on board the private jet, the NTSB wrote in a statement to CNN. The condition of the other people is not known.
The person who died was Dana Hyde, Connecticut State Police said. According to a Columbia World Projects biography at Columbia University, she served in the Obama administration for eight years and was previously a State Department official. According to her LinkedIn page, she is a former State Department employee. Hyde was taken to Saint Francis Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut, state police said in a statement Monday.
Dana Hyde of Maryland was the passenger who died, Connecticut State Police said.
The National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and FBI are investigating the incident, according to statements by the FAA and Connecticut State Police.
“Investigators have removed the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and continue to collect information from the flight crew, operator and other passengers,” the NTSB wrote in its statement.
The NTSB will release a preliminary report in two to three weeks, the agency wrote in a statement.
CNN has also reached out to the private company that owned the plane and the State Department for comment.
Yes, turbulence can cause fatalities
Turbulence is the term for air movement that gives an aircraft a sudden jolt and can be particularly dangerous for people not wearing a seat belt, according to the FAA.
From 2009 to 2021, 146 people on board Part-121 airlines – regular commercial airlines – suffered a “serious injury” from turbulence, defined as an injury requiring hospitalization for more than two days, causing a fracture, leading to severe bleeding leads or other damage involving an internal organ or, according to FAA data, involving significant burns.
Around 80% of the 146 seriously injured were crew members.
There have been no turbulence-related fatalities on Part-121 carriers since 2009, according to NTSB data. Three people died in turbulence-related accidents between 1980 and 2009, CNN reported this year, citing the government.
However, the private jet involved in Friday’s fatal incident is considered a Part-91 airline, a general aviation category that includes a wide range of private aircraft, NTSB spokeswoman Sarah Taylor Sulick told CNN.
There have been 38 turbulence-related fatalities on Part-91 aircraft since 2009, and in almost all of those incidents, the turbulence caused a fatal crash, according to NTSB data.
Although there have been no commercial fatalities from turbulence in over a decade, they can still pose serious risks.
Flight attendants who push about 300-pound carts are the most likely to get injured, Sara Nelson, a flight attendant for United and president of the Association of Flight Attendants, a union that represents 50,000 flight attendants from 20 airlines, told CNN last year.
“We have flight attendants who have been thrown against the ceiling and then back down multiple times, resulting in broken limbs. In the aisle, during unannounced turbulence, we’ve had people losing toes or losing their ability to work or sustaining injuries that kept them off the job for years,” she said.
Last week, seven people were taken to hospitals after turbulence aboard a Lufthansa flight from Texas to Germany, an airport spokesman said. A passenger on board described the plane as a roller coaster ride.
“During dinner, there was a sudden wind shear, the plane was gaining altitude, then we fell 1,000 feet,” said passenger Susan Zimmerman. “It was like unexpectedly falling free from the top of a roller coaster for five seconds, plates and glasses hanging from the ceiling, and my purse flying off the floor to the right behind me.”
And in December, at least 36 people were injured and 20 taken to emergency rooms on a Hawaiian Airlines flight after their plane encountered severe turbulence on a flight, authorities said.
