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WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — A enterprise jet was buffeted by extreme turbulence over New England, inflicting a uncommon passenger demise and forcing the plane to divert to Bradley Worldwide Airport in Connecticut, officers mentioned Saturday.
5 individuals have been aboard the Bombardier government jet that was shaken by turbulence late Friday afternoon whereas touring from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, mentioned Sarah Sulick, a spokesperson for the Nationwide Transportation Security Board.
The extent of the injury to the plane was unclear, and the NTSB didn’t present particulars together with whether or not the sufferer was sporting a seatbelt. Connecticut state police confirmed one particular person was taken to a hospital however didn’t present additional particulars.
Bombardier in an announcement prolonged its “sincerest sympathies to all these affected by this accident.”
The corporate mentioned it could not touch upon the potential explanation for the incident till the investigation is full.
The jet is owned by Conexon, an organization primarily based in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, that brings high-speed web to rural communities, in line with a Federal Aviation Administration database.
In an emailed assertion, the corporate mentioned an plane owned by Conexon was concerned in an incident that required an emergency touchdown.
“The reported fatality was not a Conexon worker,” the assertion mentioned.
NTSB investigators have been interviewing the 2 crew members and surviving passengers as a part of a probe into the lethal encounter with turbulence, Sulick mentioned. The jet’s cockpit voice and knowledge recorders have been despatched to NTSB headquarters for evaluation, she mentioned.
Turbulence, which is unstable air within the ambiance, stays a trigger for harm for airline passengers regardless of airline security enhancements over time.
Earlier this week, seven individuals have been damage and brought to hospitals after a Lufthansa Airbus A330 skilled turbulence whereas flying from Texas to Germany. The airplane was diverted to Virginia’s Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport.
However deaths are extraordinarily uncommon.
“I can’t bear in mind the final fatality resulting from turbulence,” mentioned Robert Sumwalt, a former NTSB chair and government director of the Middle for Aviation and Aerospace Security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical College.
Turbulence accounted for greater than a third of accidents on bigger industrial airways between 2009 and 2018, in line with the NTSB.
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