A former official in the Clinton and Obama administrations was named as the business jet passenger killed by turbulence over New England on Friday.
The New York Times stated that Dana Hyde was gravely injured in the crash of a Bombardier Challenger 300 carrying her husband, son, and two crew members.
After the incident, the flight from Keene, New Hampshire to Leesburg, Virginia was diverted to a location near Hartford, Connecticut. According to the complaint, Hyde was transferred to a neighboring hospital but was confirmed dead upon arrival.
According to the Associated Press, a medical examiner determined that Hyde died of “blunt force injuries.”
The Associated Press reported, citing a LinkedIn profile that has now been erased, that Hyde served as a special assistant to the president for cabinet affairs and a special assistant to the deputy U.S. attorney general during the administration of President Bill Clinton.
According to the website, she was a senior policy advisor at the State Department and an assistant director at the Office of Management and Budget during the administration of President Barack Obama.
The Associated Press stated that she also served as counsel for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Against the United States, popularly known as the 9/11 Commission.
Hyde’s biography on New York’s Columbia University World Projects website described her as “a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in law, public policy, and international development” and said she was “currently a Partner at the venture capital firm JVP.”
“Earlier in her career Hyde practiced law at WilmerHale in London and in Washington, DC at Zuckerman Spaeder,” according to the biography.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said its investigators are “now looking at a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the inflight upset.”
UPDATE: Investigators are now looking at a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the inflight upset. They will continue to learn more after they analyze information from the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and other sources of information like weather data. https://t.co/CSDnZoHqsz
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) March 6, 2023
Trim systems are described by Skybrary as “secondary” flight control systems. “By definition, to ‘trim’ an aircraft is to adjust the aerodynamic forces on the control surfaces so that the aircraft maintains the set attitude without any control input,” according to the aviation reference site.
According to NBC News, trim difficulties had previously been reported on the same kind of Bombardier aircraft, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to advise pilots flying this type of aircraft “to take extra pre-flight measures.”
Prominent Beltway lawyer Dana J. Hyde has been identified as the woman who died after the business jet she was traveling on hit heavy turbulence. The 55-year-old was one of five people aboard the jet. https://t.co/2EoqJEcRBn
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 6, 2023
According to the Associated Press, “the FAA issued an air directive last year following repeated incidents in which the horizontal stabilizer on the Bombardier BD-100-1A10 caused the plane’s nose to tilt down as the pilot attempted to rise.”
“The directive, which applied to an estimated 678 aircraft registered in the U.S., called for expanded pre-flight checks of pitch trim and revised cockpit procedures for pilots to be used under certain circumstances.”
A statement from Bombardier expressed sympathy to “those affected by this accident,” AP reported, but added that, “We stand behind our aircraft, which are designed to be robust and reliable in accordance with Transport Canada and all international airworthiness standards.”
In addition, the NTSB stated that it will examine data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder as part of its inquiry.
According to NBC, the plane belonged to Conexon, a Kansas City, Missouri-based corporation that specialized in providing high-speed internet access to rural towns.
A spokeswoman told the news outlet via email that, “We can confirm that the aircraft was owned by Conexon and that Dana Hyde was the wife of Conexon partner Jonathan Chambers. Jonathan and his son were on the flight also and not injured in the incident. “