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WASHINGTON, June 7 (AP) — Just minutes after the end of a doomed journey in a remote mountainous area in Virginia, the pilot of a business jet failed to respond to air traffic control instructions and the situation was quickly reported to a network, The network includes military, security and law enforcement agencies, according to federal aviation officials.
Despite losing contact during its ascent Sunday afternoon, the jet, which had just taken off from a Tennessee airport, continued on to its intended destination on Long Island, New York, before turning around and heading back to Virginia, where it crashed into a mountain, killing four people people on board.
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Family and friends identified two of the victims as a well-known New York real estate entrepreneur and her 2-year-old daughter.
Outside aviation experts speculate that pilots may have lost consciousness from a lack of oxygen inside the plane as the plane climbed above 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), an altitude that typically requires cabin pressurization.
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“The most likely scenario right now is a pressurization failure or a wrong pressurization system setting,” said aviation psychologist Alan Diehl, who has worked for the FAA, NTSB and U.S. Air Force. ) explain. In the late 1960s, Deal also helped design the Cessna Citation, the original model of the plane that crashed in Virginia.
It was not immediately clear when the pilot stopped responding to air traffic controllers. But according to the FAA, the last time they tried to contact him was 15 minutes after takeoff.
The plane can exceed 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) in just a few minutes, Deal said. However, pilots may have to wait a while after takeoff to be cleared to fly to higher altitudes.
Depending on the altitude of the jet and the age and health of the pilot, he may have several minutes — or even less than a minute — to react when his brain is starved of oxygen, Dill said.
“Another thing they might not be able to eliminate at the moment is some kind of medical problem,” Diehl said.
Heart attacks, brain aneurysms and over-the-counter medications such as antihistamines can affect a pilot’s ability to fly the plane and affect cabin oxygen levels and possible problems with pressurization.
Three U.S. officials said Monday that fighter jet pilots sent to intercept the business jet reported that the pilot appeared to be slumped and unresponsive. The officials have been briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the military operation.
The plane’s erratic flight path — a U-turn over Long Island and directly over the U.S. capital — prompted the military to scramble fighter jets. This caused the sonic boom heard in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.
The plane’s owner, John Rumpel, said his daughter Adina Azarian, 2-year-old granddaughter Aria and the girl’s nanny were killed along with the pilot. He said they were returning home to Long Island after visiting his home in North Carolina.
Rupel told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a new radio was installed on the plane two or three weeks ago and that the plane was equipped with emergency oxygen. Rupel said he also believed the pilot, whom he identified as Jeff Hefner, may have lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. Rupel said Hefner had a recent physical and that he was not aware of any relevant medical conditions.
“He’s top-notch, absolutely top-notch. If he wasn’t, I wouldn’t let my daughter and my grandson fly with him,” Rumpel said Tuesday.
Rupel said he wondered if the strobe lights on the plane that were supposed to warn the pilot that he was losing oxygen had malfunctioned.
“As far as I know, emergency masks have never been dropped,” he said.
Rumpel also said it’s a common practice for pilots to enter their destination, as well as an “emergency return destination,” into the autopilot system, which he said would explain why the plane turned around after flying past its destination, MacArthur, and headed south again to Long Island Airport. . The emergency return destination should have been the airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, from where the flight took off, he said.
Investigators spent several hours on Monday hiking into the rural area where the plane crashed, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Charlottesville. They are expected to be on site for at least three to four days.
Diehl, an aviation psychologist, said investigators often dig into the background of pilots after a crash. For example, has he or she been trained in the military to recognize signs of low cabin pressure? Are they adventurers? What was the result of their last flight medical?
Investigators will also review the pilot’s last communication with air traffic control. They will check for changes in speaking patterns, such as slower speaking, which may indicate low oxygen levels. But Diehl said testing of blood and tissue oxygen levels was unlikely given the severity of the crash.
At a briefing Monday, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt said the wreckage was “highly fragmented.” It was not immediately clear whether the plane had a flight data recorder. A preliminary report will be issued within 10 days.
The plane flew directly over the country’s capital. According to the Pentagon, six F-16 fighter jets were deployed to intercept the plane, including two from a base in Maryland, two from New Jersey and two from South Carolina.
The plane climbed to 34,000 feet (10,363 kilometers) and remained there for the rest of the flight before beginning its descent at 3:23 p.m., before crashing about nine minutes later, according to the NTSB. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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