Hawaiian Airlines’s A330-200 Flight to Honolulu after a Turbulent Event: 11 People Injured
HONOLULU — Severe turbulence rocked a flight from Phoenix to Honolulu Sunday, seriously injuring 11 people in what an Hawaiian Airlines official called an isolated and unusual event.
Jon Snook, the airline’s chief operating officer, said the airline hasn’t experienced “an incident of this nature in recent history.” He said during the news conference that the flight was full.
Jim Ireland, director of Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, said 36 people received treatment, including those with nausea or minor injuries. 18 people were taken to hospitals and 11 were deemed to be in serious condition.
“We are also very happy and we feel fortunate that there were not any deaths or other critical injuries. And we’re also very hopeful that all will recover and make a full recovery,” Ireland said.
Her mother had just sat down when the turbulence hit, but didn’t have a chance to get her safety belt on.
“The flight crew reported that they did not experience any remarkable turbulence during the flight, nor during the time immediately surrounding the in-flight upset event,” the report said.
Thomas Vaughan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said there had been a weather advisory for thunderstorms that included Oahu and areas that would have included the flight path at the time of the incident.
The airline was aware of the weather forecast and the unstable air and weather conditions, but did not have any warning of the turbulence on the flight.
He said that the plane lost altitude during the turbulence, though he did not know how much. The plane’s flight data recorder would provide those details, he said.
The Airbus A330-200 began its descent immediately after the turbulence and crew declared an emergency due to the number of injuries on board, he said. Air traffic controllers gave the flight priority to land.
An investigation of the fatal crash of a high-spin passenger on an executive jet earlier in the day the jet went into turbulence
The investigation will look at what other measures were taken to ensure that passengers were buckled in, instead of just turning on the seatbelt sign.
The death of a passenger who served in two presidential administrations may have been caused by turbulence on a business jet that may have had problems with its stability.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it’s looking at a “reported trim issue,” a reference to adjustments that are made to an airplane’s control surfaces to ensure it is stable and level in flight. The plane experienced a lot of turbulence late Friday afternoon.
After reviewing the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and other equipment, the investigators will be able to learn more about the crash.
The Bombardier executive jet was traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, before diverting to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. The passengers and crew members were traveling in a vehicle.
The person who died was identified as Dana Hyde of Cabin John, Maryland, by the Connecticut State Police. The chief medical examiner found her death to have been related to injuries.
The jet’s owner, Conexon, based in Kansas City, Missouri, confirmed in an email that Hyde was the wife of a company partner, Jonathan Chambers, who was also on the plane with his son. Neither father nor son were hurt, the company said.
Hyde served as counsel for the 9/11 Commission, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, and other posts during a career in Washington, D.C., according to her LinkedIn page.
She served as a special assistant to the president for cabinet affairs and a special assistant to the deputy U.S. attorney general during President Bill Clinton’s administration, and as a senior policy adviser at the State Department and associate director at the Office of Management and Budget during President Barack Obama’s administration, the LinkedIn site indicates.
Investigation of a Newly-Flavored Private Jet Using the Bombardier BD100-1A10 Horizontal Stabilizer
The FAA issued its air directive last year after multiple instances in which the horizontal stabilizer on the Bombardier BD-100-1A10 caused the nose of the plane to turn down after the pilot tried to make the aircraft climb.
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.
The pilots had received multiple alerts from the aircraft prior to the incident, and even aborted their first takeoff attempt because of an issue with the aircraft. They found a protective cover left on the plane when it was parked.
The company said it stood behind its aircraft, which were built to be robust and reliable in accordance with Transport Canada.
Investigators say the violent movements that killed a woman aboard a private jet this month were multiple times the pull of gravity and were not caused by the weather.
The pilots disabled a stabilizing setting that is used in order to cause the aircraft to hit the ground at about four times the pull of gravity. The pilots were in the process of resolving warning messages from the aircraft.
After the plane’s pitch dropped, one of the pilots quickly got control of the plane in what he estimated to be a few seconds.
The NTSB previously said the violent movements “resulted in fatal injuries to a passenger,” who the Connecticut State Police identified as Dana Hyde. Hyde worked at the State Department while he was a White House official.
Is the Aircraft Observed Energetic and Evaporating from the Flavor of a Supernova Remnant?
After restarting the plane, they received additional alerts from the aircraft but proceeded with the takeoff and flight because the alerts did not meet the threshold for grounding.