Business jet passenger killed in ‘severe turbulence’ over New England

A passenger of a business jet was killed when the plane, which was traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, encountered “severe turbulence” Friday, officials said.

The aircraft, a Bombardier Challenger 300, was carrying two crew members and three passengers and was forced to land in Windsor Locks, a town about 14 miles north of Hartford, Connecticut, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.

Officials have not identified the passenger who died. That person had been taken from the airport to a nearby hospital, the Connecticut State Police said.

The NTSB said investigators were interviewing the crew, operator and passengers and had removed the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorders from the plane, which had been secured at the Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.

Sarah Sulick, a spokesperson for the NTSB, said it could not release further information about the nature of the turbulence, the passenger who was killed or any related injuries, as the investigation remained ongoing.

The death follows a similar incident last week in which seven passengers of a Lufthansa flight traveling from Texas to Frankfurt were hospitalized with injuries after their plane encountered extreme turbulence. In December, 36 people were injured during turbulence on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Phoenix to Honolulu.

Although accidents on aircraft carrying passengers or cargo are uncommon, turbulence accounted for more than one-third of such aircraft accidents from 2009-18, according to a report from the NTSB. Most of those accidents resulted in one or more serious injuries but no aircraft damage, the agency said in the report.

There have been 146 passengers and crew seriously injured by turbulence from 2009-21, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration.