Severe turbulence kills plane passenger in US

A passenger on board a private business jet that departed from New Hampshire in the United States on Friday (March 3) died from injuries caused by severe turbulence.

The Bombardier CL30 jet that departed from Keene, New Hampshire, had diverted to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut around 4pm on Friday (5am on Saturday, Singapore time) after “encountering severe turbulence”, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told CNN.

It was originally heading to Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a Twitter post on Saturday that the turbulence “resulted in fatal injuries to a passenger”.

In a statement to CNN, the board said three passengers and two crew members were aboard the private jet. It is not clear whether they were also injured in the turbulence.

A Connecticut Airport Authority spokesman said the incident did not impact airport operations, and that the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy on the passenger who died on Saturday.

No further details were given about the deceased.

The NTSB, FAA and the FBI will investigate the incident, statements from the FAA and Connecticut State Police said.

[[nid:289657]]

“Investigators have removed the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and are continuing to gather information from the flight crew, operator and other passengers,” an NTSB spokesman said.

The board is expected to release a preliminary report in two to three weeks.

Friday’s incident occurred as severe storms caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of people across several US states on Friday.

It follows an incident in December 2022 when a flight from Phoenix to Honolulu, Hawaii, injured 36 passengers after the plane hit severe turbulence.

According to the FAA, 146 people on board regular commercial airlines suffered serious injury from turbulence from 2009 to 2021. Of the 146 people, about 80 per cent were crew members.

There were no deaths caused by turbulence in that time period.

But there were 38 turbulence-related deaths involving private planes since 2009, and the turbulence caused a fatal crash in all of these incidents, data from NTSB showed.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.