NTSB Investigating Possible Challenger 300 Trim Issue

On Friday, 03 March 2023, a Bombardier Challenger 300 business jet traveling from Keene, New Hampshire’s Dillant–Hopkins Airport (EEN) to Virginia’s Leesburg Executive Airport (JYO) diverted enroute to Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport (BDL) after an encounter with severe, possibly extreme turbulence claimed the life of one of the aircraft’s three passengers.

On 06 March, Connecticut State Police identified the decedent as 55-year-old Dana Hyde, a former White House and international development official who’d been traveling with her husband and one of her sons. The family had been returning from a trip during which they visited schools in New England; so Hyde’s husband, Jonathan Chambers, stated in an email. Neither Mr. Chambers, Hyde’s son, nor the two members of the Challenger’s flight-crew sustained injuries.

In addition to examining atmospheric phenomena for purpose of better understanding the ostensible turbulence event, NTSB investigators are “now looking at a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the in-flight upset.” The agency elaborated upon neither the nature or extent of the alleged trim issue.

In 2022, following reports of multiple instances in which displacement of the horizontal stabilizers of Bombardier BD-100-1A10 [Challenger 300] aircraft occasioned sudden, uncommanded nose-down pitching following pilots’ attempts to initiate climbs, the FAA issued an Airworthiness Directive (AD) instructing operators of Challenger 300 aircraft to implement expanded pre-flight checks of the aircrafts’ pitch trim systems and revise certain abnormal/condition amber cockpit procedures. The directive applied to an estimated 678 U.S.-registered aircraft.

In a statement, Bombardier advised it could not comment on the potential cause of the 03 March incident. The Canadian plane-maker did, however, extend its “deepest sympathies to all those affected by this accident,” asserting: “We stand behind our aircraft, which are designed to be robust and reliable in accordance with Transport Canada and all international airworthiness standards.”

Speaking to the subject of the harrowing in-flight event, Mr. Chambers set forth: “The plane suddenly convulsed in a manner that violently threw the three of us. My wife was badly injured.”

Upon the Challenger Jet’s arrival at BDL, Hyde was transported to a Connecticut hospital. Regrettably, she succumbed to her injuries later that night.

Federal investigators will analyze germane weather data and review the information archived on the Challenger’s flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders. The NTSB stated its preliminary report on the incident will be made public in two-to-three weeks.

Hyde served as a White House special assistant and a senior State Department advisor during the Clinton and Obama administrations respectively. She also functioned as an associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Formerly, Hyde was counsel on the 9/11 Commission, which retrospectively investigated the nation’s preparedness for the 11 Sept 2001 attacks.

Hyde was born in rural eastern Oregon and worked her way through college and law school, pursuing a career in Washington D.C. with what her husband characterized as “a sense of love.”

“Her desire to help people was evident in her career choices,” Chambers wrote. “She was especially proud of work investing in infrastructure in underdeveloped parts of Africa and Asia.”

Mr. Chambers further disclosed that Hyde had spent time studying and working in Israel, stating his wife “fell in love with the country, the language, and the people.” In deference to Hyde’s affection for the Holy Land, Chambers concluded: “So, we have decided to lay her to rest in that special place.”

Fatalities resulting from turbulence are exceedingly rare. Subsequent the 03 March Challenger 300 incident, former NTSB chair and executive director of Embry-Riddle’s Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety Robert Sumwalt remarked: “I can't remember the last fatality due to turbulence.”

Aero-News Network offers its condolences to the family and friends of Dana Hyde.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov