The passenger who died on a private plane that experienced severe turbulence while flying over New England last week has been identified as a prominent Washington lawyer who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Also an alumnus of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission, Dana J. Hyde’s name was released by Connecticut police investigating the incident on Monday.
Hyde, 55, was one of five aboard the DC-bound plane, which was forced to divert to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut on Friday afternoon after encountering unforeseen instability.
Others on board included Hyde’s husband and son, as well as two crew members, all of whom survived. The family was reportedly heading back to their home in Cabin John, Maryland, when turbulence struck unexpectedly.
The plane was traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, before diverting to Bradley, where the high-profile attorney was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Also an alumnus of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, Dana J. Hyde’s name was released by Connecticut police investigating the incident on Monday.
In a statement Monday that offered information about authorities’ ongoing investigation into the death of the former White House staffer, which is also being investigated by the FBI, Connecticut State Troopers confirmed that the private plane belonged to a company headed by Hyde’s spouse, Jonathan Chambers.
The company, Kansas City-based Conexon, provides high-speed Internet service to rural communities. Before joining the company, Chambers was also a prominent figure in Washington, serving in the US Senate as a Republican staff director and later as head of the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning.
Meanwhile, Hyde worked as a part-time consultant for the DC-based think tank Aspen Institute, a gathering of leaders from various industries striving to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
In the role, Hyde served as co-chair of the Aspen Partnership for an Inclusive Economy (APIE) from 2020 to 2021.
“We can confirm that the aircraft was owned by Conexon and that Dana Hyde was the wife of Conexon partner Jonathan Chambers,” company spokeswoman Abby Carere said in an email. ‘Jonathan and his son were also on the flight and were not injured in the incident. ‘
Hyde, once a prominent figure in Washington, is seen signing the $375 million Benin Power Compact in September 2015 in the presence of Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi and then Vice President Joe Biden.
The plane was headed for Leesburg Executive Airport in suburban DC.
According to Flight Aware data, the plane made the reverse trip from Leesburg to Dillant/Hopkins on Thursday.
Bradley International is about 70 miles from Keene, New Hampshire, where the plane took off.
On 03/03/2023, at approximately 3:49 pm, Connecticut State Police responded to a call for medical assistance at Bradley International Airport. One patient was later transported to an area hospital by ambulance.
Our agency is assisting as needed; however, the NTSB and FBI are investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident. For more information, please contact those agencies directly,” a Connecticut State Police spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
Flight data shows the plane arrived in Keene, New Hampshire, around 3:35 p.m. and began traveling south along the Connecticut River. It reached a maximum altitude of 26,000 feet before descending and landing around 3:45 p.m.
Turbulence, which is unstable air in the atmosphere, continues to be a cause of injury for airline passengers despite improvements in airline safety over the years.
Earlier this week, seven people were injured enough to be transported 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. Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey’s wife, Camila, was among the passengers. She described it as ‘chaos’, adding that ‘the turbulence just kept coming’.
But deaths are extremely rare. A preliminary report will be published in two weeks.
“I can’t remember the last death due to turbulence,” said Robert Sumwalt, former NTSB chairman and executive director of the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Turbulence accounted for more than a third of the accidents on the largest commercial airlines between 2009 and 2018, according to the NTSB.