NTSB Releases Report on Flight Diverted to Bradley After Woman Suffered Fatal Medical Emergency

The pilots who were flying a business jet when a woman was injured during an in-flight disturbance earlier this month and later died had aborted their first takeoff after receiving caution messages on their instrumentation, according to a report the National Transportation Safety Board released Friday.

The NTSB has been investigating the March 3 flight that was diverted to Bradley International Airport.

The Bombardier Challenger 300 was heading from Keene, New Hampshire to Leesburg, Virginia when Dana Hyde, 55, of Cabin John, Maryland, was injured.

The NTSB report says caution messages went off, the airplane pitched rapidly during the flight and Hyde was injured.

The crew did not report any significant turbulence during the flight.

After the plane was diverted to Bradley International Airport, Hyde was transported to a local hospital, where she died later that day.

The preliminary NTSB report says the first takeoff attempt was aborted after one of the pilots saw that the “right primary flight display airspeed indicator mis-compared to the left side airspeed indicator.”

The crew inspected the plane, didn’t see any damage, and the pilot restarted the engine and started to taxi to a runway, the report says.

Then they received a “rudder limiter fault” message, something the pilot reported getting before, and the flight continued because it was an advisory and not a caution or warning, the report says.

The NTSB notes that the crew reported that the takeoff and acceleration were normal. Then, at around 6,000 feet, there were multiple Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System, or EICAS, caution messages, the crew followed instructions from a checklist and the airplane pitched abruptly.

Soon after the in-flight emergency, one passenger told the crew that another passenger was injured.

Hyde was given medical attention and the plane was diverted to Bradley Airport, where an ambulance was waiting and took Hyde to a nearby hospital. She died later in the day.

NBC News reports that Hyde was a prominent attorney who once served on the 9/11 Commission.

She was the co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Partnership for an Inclusive Economy and served in both the Obama and the Clinton administrations, according to NBC News, and from 2002 to 2004, she also served on the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, NBC News reports.

On the same day the NTSB released its report, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a new airworthiness directive (AD) regarding certain Bombardier Model BD-100-1A10 airplanes. The Challenger 300 is the Model BD-100-1A10.

"This proposed AD was prompted by a report that a design deficiency was discovered which could allow a no-back pawl to be incorrectly installed in a horizontal stabilizer trim actuator (HSTA)," the FAA directive said.

A spokesperson for the FAA would not say if the proposed directive is a result of the March 3 incident.