CNN
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One person died as a result of severe turbulence on a private business jet diverted to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, on Friday, according to aviation officials.
A Bombardier CL30 jet en route from Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene, New Hampshire to Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia “experienced severe turbulence” around 4 p.m. Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration wrote in a statement. Later diverted to Connecticut airport. CNN
As a result of that disturbance, one passenger suffered “fatal injuries”, The National Transportation Safety Board wrote on Twitter.
The private jet was carrying three passengers and two crew members, the NTSB wrote in a statement to CNN. The condition of the rest of the people is not known.
Airport operations were not affected, according to a statement from the Connecticut Airports Authority.
The Connecticut office of the chief medical examiner was scheduled to perform an autopsy on the passenger who died Saturday, a spokeswoman told CNN. The person who died has not been publicly identified and no other information has been released.
The FAA, NTSB, and FBI will investigate the incident, according to statements from the FAA and Connecticut State Police.
“Investigators have removed the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and continue to collect information from the flight crew, operator and other passengers,” the NTSB wrote in its statement.
The NTSB will issue a preliminary report in two to three weeks, the agency wrote in a statement.
Turbulence is a term for air movement that can cause an aircraft to suddenly jolt and be particularly dangerous for people not wearing seat belts. According to the FAA.
From 2009 to 2021, 146 people suffered a “serious injury” from the collision, defined as an injury that required hospitalization for more than two days, a broken bone, severe hemorrhage. or other damage occurs, internal organ involvement, or significant involvement. burns, According to FAA statistics.
Of those 146 serious injuries, nearly 80% were crew members.
CNN has reached out to the FAA for statistics on fatalities caused by turbulence. A 2009 CNN article noted that three people have died in riot-related accidents since 1980, according to the administration.
Sara Nelson, a United flight attendant and president of the Association of Flight Attendants, a union representing 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, told CNN that last year flight attendants pushing around 300-pound carts were more likely to be injured. .
“We have had flight attendants who have been thrown into the ceiling and then thrown down multiple times, resulting in broken limbs. In the street, with unannounced disturbances, we had people who lost toes, or lost the ability to work, or had injuries that kept them out of work for years,” he said. said
Last week, seven people were taken to hospital after a Lufthansa flight from Texas to Germany crashed, an airport spokesman said. A passenger on board said that the plane was moving like a roller coaster.
“During dinner service, all of a sudden there was a puff of air, the plane went up, then we dropped 1,000 feet,” said passenger Susan Zimmerman. “It was like suddenly falling off the top of a roller coaster for five seconds, plates and glassware were on the ceiling, and my purse flew right behind me from the floor.”
And in December, at least 36 people were injured on a Hawaiian Airlines flight, 20 of whom were taken to emergency rooms, when their plane experienced severe in-flight turbulence, officials said.
