A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report says pilots mishandled warning messages on a plane that made an emergency landing at Bradley Airport last year, resulting in the death of a woman.
The woman, 55-year-old Dana Hyde, of Cabin John, Maryland, died after sustaining blunt force injuries during an in-flight disturbance on March 3, 2023.
The plane, a Bombardier Challenger 300, was heading from Keene, New Hampshire to Leesburg, Virginia.
In the report released Thursday, the NTSB said the flight crew's failure to remove a probe cover before the flight, and the pilots' decision to take off with a no-go advisory message after an aborted takeoff, resulted in fatal injuries to a passenger.
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The NTSB said one of two airspeed indicators failed to show acceleration and as a result, the plane couldn't takeoff. The plane slowed down and exited the runway, according to officials.
The preliminary report said the crew inspected the plane, didn’t see any damage, and the pilot restarted the engine and started to taxi to a runway.
After that incident, an error message was displayed and the pilot-in-command ran tests to clear it, which didn't work as intended, the report reads. The pilot decided to take off anyways because it was an advisory and not a warning.
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But after takeoff, multiple caution messages popped up, according to the report.
The pilot-in-command's decision to continue the climb and use autopilot while troubleshooting, "contributed to the severity of the in-flight issue," the report reads.
The pilots decided to disconnect autopilot and as a result, the plane pitched up, resulting in lots of movement and jolting which ultimately causing Hyde's injuries, the NTSB said.
In the report, the NTSB said the pilot claimed he didn't expect the plane to pitch up as rapidly as it did. The flight lasted about 17 minutes before ultimately landing in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
A passenger on the plane told authorities it felt like the airplane was breaking apart and that the event was unlike anything he had ever experienced.
The crew did not report any significant turbulence during the flight. The NTSB has been investigating the March 3 flight since last year.
After the plane was diverted to Bradley Airport, Hyde was transported to a local hospital, where she died later that 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.
From 2002 to 2004, she also served on the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, NBC News reports.
NBC Connecticut has reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) but has not yet heard back.
You can read the full report below.
