A man died on a private flight to the United States product of strong turbulence that forced the aircraft to deviate from the initial course when flying over New England, in the north-west of the country.
Bad conditions forced the aircraft to change course and head to Bradley International Airport.
The Bombardier plane was carrying five people when it hit turbulence. I was traveling from Keene, New Hampshire to Leesburg, Virginia.according to US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokeswoman Sarah Sulick.
It’s unclear at this time what damage the plane sustained, and the NTSB has yet to provide details. They also did not specify whether the victim was wearing a seat belt..
According to a Federal Aviation Administration database, the aircraft it was owned by Conexon, a Kansas City-based company, Missouri. The company, which specializes in bringing fiber optics to rural communities to provide them with high-speed Internet, declined to comment on Saturday.
NTSB investigators interviewed the two crew members and the surviving passengers. THE Voice and data recorders from the aircraft’s cockpit were sent to NTSB headquarters for analysis, Sulick added.
Turbulence, or unstable air currents in the atmosphere, continues to injure airline passengers despite improvements in aviation safety over the years.
Earlier this week, seven people were so injured that they had to be transported to hospital after a Lufthansa Airbus A330 experienced turbulence on its flight from Texas to Germany. The plane was hijacked at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
However, deaths from turbulence are extremely rare.
“I can’t remember the last fatality of the turbulence,” said Robert Sumwalt, former NTSB chairman and executive director of the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
The turbulence represented more than a third of accidents on commercial airlines largest between 2009 and 2018, according to the NTSB.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.