Prominent Lawyer Who Served in Clinton Admin Killed in Horrific Business Jet Accident
A former official in the Clinton and Obama administrations was identified as the passenger killed Friday by air turbulence while flying in a business jet over New England.
Dana Hyde was fatally injured in the accident on board a Bombardier Challenger 300 plane that carried her husband and son, as well as two crew members, The New York Times reported.
The plane was flying from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, but diverted after the incident to a town near Hartford, Connecticut. Hyde was transported to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead, according to the report.
The Associated Press reported that a medical examiner ruled that Hyde died “from blunt-force injuries.”
Quoting a LinkedIn page that has apparently been removed, the AP said Hyde had been 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.
During President Barack Obama’s administration, she was a senior policy adviser at the State Department and associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, according to the site.
She also worked as counsel for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly referred to as the 9/11 Commission, the AP reported.
Hyde’s biography on New York’s Columbia University World Projects website described her as “a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in law, public policy, and international development” and said she was “currently a Partner at the venture capital firm JVP.”
“Earlier in her career Hyde practiced law at WilmerHale in London and in Washington, DC at Zuckerman Spaeder,” according to the biography.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said its investigators are “now looking at a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the inflight upset.”
UPDATE: Investigators are now looking at a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the inflight upset. They will continue to learn more after they analyze information from the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and other sources of information like weather data. https://t.co/CSDnZoHqsz
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) March 6, 2023
Skybrary describes trim systems as a “secondary” flight control system. “By definition, to ‘trim’ an aircraft is to adjust the aerodynamic forces on the control surfaces so that the aircraft maintains the set attitude without any control input,” according to the aviation reference site.
NBC News reported that trim problems had previously been reported on the same model of Bombardier aircraft, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to tell pilots flying that type of aircraft “to take extra pre-flight measures.”
Prominent Beltway lawyer Dana J. Hyde has been identified as the woman who died after the business jet she was traveling on hit heavy turbulence. The 55-year-old was one of five people aboard the jet. https://t.co/2EoqJEcRBn
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 6, 2023
According to the AP, “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.”
A statement from Bombardier expressed sympathy to “those affected by this accident,” AP reported, but added that, “We stand behind our aircraft, which are designed to be robust and reliable in accordance with Transport Canada and all international airworthiness standards.”
The NTSB also said it will analyze information from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder in its investigation.
The jet was owned by Conexon, a company based in Kansas City, Missouri, that specializes in expanding high-speed internet service to rural communities, according to NBC.
A spokeswoman told the news outlet via email that, “We can confirm that the aircraft was owned by Conexon and that Dana Hyde was the wife of Conexon partner Jonathan Chambers. Jonathan and his son were on the flight also and not injured in the incident. “
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