Dana Hyde, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, participates in the Ghana Compact signing ceremony during the US Africa Leaders Summit at the State Department in Washington on Aug. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
HARTFORD, Conn. -
A business jet flying over New England violently pitched upward then downward, fatally injuring a passenger, after pilots responding to automated cockpit warnings switched off a system that helps keep the aircraft stable, U.S. transportation investigators reported Friday.
The National Transportation Safety Board didn't reach any conclusions in its preliminary report on the main cause of the deadly March 3 accident, but it described a series of things that went wrong before and after the plane swooped out of control.
Confronted with several alerts in the cockpit of the Bombardier jet, pilots followed a checklist and turned off a switch that "trims" or adjusts the stabilizer on the plane's tail, the report said.
The plane's nose then swept upward, subjecting the people inside to forces about four times the force of gravity, then pointed lower before again turning upward before pilots could regain control, the report said.
Pilots told investigators they did not encounter turbulence, as the NTSB had said in an initial assessment the day after the incident.
The trim system of the Bombardier Challenger 300 twin-engine jet was the subject of a Federal Aviation Administration mandate last year that pilots conduct extra safety checks before flights.
Bombardier did not respond directly to the report's contents, saying in a statement that it was "carefully studying" it. In a previous statement, the Canadian manufacturer said it stood behind its Challenger 300 jets and their airworthiness.
"We will continue to fully support and provide assistance to all authorities as needed," the company said Friday.
The two pilots and three passengers were traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, before diverting to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. One passenger, Dana Hyde, 55, of Cabin John, Maryland, was brought to a hospital where she died from blunt-force injuries.
Hyde served in government positions during the Clinton and Obama administrations and was counsel for the 9/11 Commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
It was unclear if Hyde was belted in her seat or up and about, in the cabin of the jet owned by Conexon, based in Kansas City, Missouri. Her husband and their son, along with the pilot and co-pilot, were not injured in the incident, the report said.
A representative of Conexon, a company specializing in rural internet, declined to comment Friday.
The report indicated the pilots aborted their initial takeoff because no one removed a plastic cover from one of the exterior tubes that determine airspeed, and they took off with a rudder limiter fault alert on.
Another warning indicated autopilot stabilizer trim failure. The plane abruptly pitched upward as the pilots moved the stabilizer trim switch from primary to off while working through procedures on a checklist, the report said.
The plane violently oscillated up and down and the "stick pusher" activated, the report said, meaning the onboard computer thought the plane was in danger of an aerodynamic stall.
John Cox, a former airline pilot and now a safety consultant, said "there are definitely issues" with the pilots' pre-flight actions, but he said they reacted correctly when they followed the checklist for responding to trim failure.
The flight crew was comprised of two experienced pilots with 5,000 and 8,000 hours of flying time, and held ratings needed to fly for an airline. But both were relatively new to the model of aircraft, earning their ratings last October.
The FAA issued its directive about Bombardier Challenger 300 jets last year after multiple instances in which the horizontal stabilizer on the aircrafts caused the nose of the plane to turn down after the pilot tried to make the aircraft climb.
------
Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. AP Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, according to an indictment unsealed Friday that alleges that he described a Pentagon 'plan of attack' and shared a classified map related to a military operation.
Air Canada has rejected compensation claims from some travellers who were among the thousands affected by flight delays caused by computer problems in recent weeks -- a response it now calls 'erroneous,' with cash offers en route.
Amid raging wildfires in western and eastern provinces, vice-president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Craig Stewart, shares what residents need to know about wildfire policy coverage.
Environment Canada has been advising people to check the Air Quality Health Index as wildfire smoke blanketed large swaths of Canada in recent days, but even without wildfires, the index can be a useful tool to monitor air pollution.
Anthaea-Grace Patricia Dennis is not your typical 12-year-old. She is a child prodigy who's about to become the youngest Canadian to ever graduate from university.
The father of Tori Stafford, an Ontario girl who was murdered in 2009, says the latest decision to transfer convicted killer Paul Bernardo to a medium-security prison is a 'slap in the face' to all murder victims' families.
Air Canada has rejected compensation claims from some travellers who were among the thousands affected by flight delays caused by computer problems in recent weeks -- a response it now calls 'erroneous,' with cash offers en route.
The father of Tori Stafford, an Ontario girl who was murdered in 2009, says the latest decision to transfer convicted killer Paul Bernardo to a medium-security prison is a 'slap in the face' to all murder victims' families.
Canada's unemployment rate ticked up in May for the first time in nine months, but forecasters say the Bank of Canada will have to see more softening in the economy before it takes it takes a step back from raising interest rates.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, according to an indictment unsealed Friday that alleges that he described a Pentagon 'plan of attack' and shared a classified map related to a military operation.
France is calling him "the backpack hero," a young Catholic pilgrim on a walking tour of cathedrals who came face to face with the man who stabbed several children in a park in Annecy.
Philippine troops, police and rescue workers began forcibly evacuating residents near Mayon Volcano on Friday as its increasing unrest indicated a violent eruption of one of the country's most active volcanoes is possible within weeks or days.
Ukraine's domestic security service said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian 'sabotage group' blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine.
France's president travelled Friday to the side of families traumatized by the savage stabbings of four very young children, all said to be in stable condition after emergency surgery, while investigators worked to unravel the motives of a Syrian man taken into custody.
Canada requested use of the European Union's compound in Kabul to help with tasks such as fingerprinting for those fleeing Afghanistan, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press.
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of an Alberta woman who was unwilling to be vaccinated in order to get a life-saving organ transplant.
A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbours, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria.
Canadians who make content online are to be excluded from future regulations that the Liberal government is imposing on digital giants, a new draft policy shows.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms on Thursday gave employees a sneak peek at a series of AI tools it was building, including ChatGPT-like chatbots planned for Messenger and WhatsApp that could converse using different personas.
Scientists have documented the first-known instance of a 'virgin birth' by a crocodile, which had been living in isolation for 16 years at Costa Rican zoo, according to a study published Wednesday.
Daily U.S. sign-ups for Netflix have jumped in the first few days after the streaming giant's password-sharing crackdown came into effect on May 23, data from research firm Antenna showed.
A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Friday to helping two other men charged with fatally shooting rapper Young Dolph in a daytime ambush at a Memphis bakery.
Air Canada has rejected compensation claims from some travellers who were among the thousands affected by flight delays caused by computer problems in recent weeks -- a response it now calls 'erroneous,' with cash offers en route.
Canada's unemployment rate ticked up in May for the first time in nine months, but forecasters say the Bank of Canada will have to see more softening in the economy before it takes it takes a step back from raising interest rates.
Rescuers in Washington state are praising the resourcefulness of a 10-year-old girl who survived on her own for more than 24 hours in the rugged terrain of the Cascade mountains after getting lost while out with her family.
The April Facebook post hardly seemed like national news at the time for Deptford Little League president Don Bozzuffi. He'd lost patience when two umpires resigned in the wake of persistent spectator abuse. So he wrote an updated code of conduct.
Ford has planned a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its iconic Mustang muscle car next year under a massive rebranding of Ford Performance aimed at bringing the automotive manufacturer "into the racing business."
A group of climate activists claimed responsibility on Wednesday for deflating the tires of sport utility vehicles in Denmark's capital. More than 100 vehicles were vandalized, police said.
Dana Hyde, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, participates in the Ghana Compact signing ceremony during the US Africa Leaders Summit at the State Department in Washington on Aug. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
