State police ID airline passenger who died

Turbulence had forced jet to divert to Bradley

An airline passenger who died following a medical emergency at Bradley International Airport on Friday afternoon has been identified by the Connecticut State Police.

A business jet was buffeted by severe turbulence over New England on Friday, causing a rare passenger death and forcing the aircraft to divert to Bradley International Airport, officials said Saturday.

Connecticut State Police responded to a medical assist call at Bradley International Airport just before 4 p.m. on Friday. Five people were aboard the Bombardier executive jet that was shaken by turbulence late Friday afternoon while traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, said Sarah Sulick, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board.

A woman, later identified as Dana Hyde, 55, of Cabin John, Maryland, was transported via ambulance to Saint Francis Medical Center in Hartford where she was later pronounced dead, according to state police.

The extent of the damage to the aircraft was unclear, and the NTSB did not provide details including whether the victim was wearing a seatbelt.

The jet is owned by Conexon, a company based in Kansas City, Missouri, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database. The company, which brings highspeed internet to rural communities, declined comment Saturday.

NTSB investigators were interviewing the two crew members and surviving passengers as part of a probe into the deadly encounter with turbulence, Sulick said. The jet’s cockpit voice and data recorders were sent to NTSB headquarters for analysis, she said.

The Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner assumed custody of the woman, state police said.

Turbulence, which is unstable air in the atmosphere, remains a cause for injury for airline passengers despite airline safety improvements over the years.

Earlier last week, seven people were hurt badly enough to be taken to hospitals after a Lufthansa Airbus A330 experienced turbulence while flying from Texas to Germany. The plane was diverted to Virginia’s Washington Dulles International Airport.

But deaths are extremely rare. “I can’t remember the last fatality due to turbulence,” said Robert Sumwalt, a former NTSB chair and executive director of the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-riddle Aeronautical University.

Turbulence accounted for more than a third of accidents on larger commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018, according to the NTSB.