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Almost two years after a private jet crashed in Virginia, killing four, the National Transportation Safety Board released their final report to the accident
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Although researchers were unable to determine a likely cause for the crash, various questions remain unanswered
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The victims were Adina Azarian, 49, her daughter Aria, 2, Aria's Nanny, Evadnie Smith, 56, and the pilot Jeff Hefner, 69
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released their final report after an investigation into a plane crash in June 2023 in which four people were killed.
On Wednesday, May 14, the NTSB revealed that the likely cause of the crash “pilot was incapacitated for work due to loss of cabin pressure for indefinite reasons.” Moreover, a contributing factor was mentioned as the decision of the “pilot and owner/operator to operate the aircraft without additional oxygen.”
“Based on the available information, it is likely that the occupants of the aircraft became hypoxic due to a lack of oxygen during the flight and incapacitated for work, wrote the NTSB, and noted that the symptoms of height-related hypoxia” are often vague and experienced differently by different people, “but if it is not mitigated.
On board the crash, Adina Azarian, 49, her daughter Aria, 2, Aria's live-in Nanny, Evadnie Smith, 56, and the pilot Jeff Hefner, 69.
In addition to not being able to determine what led to the loss of cabin pressure, researchers could not determine whether that was something that happened quickly or for a while.
Jeff Hefner/Facebook
Jeff Hefner
The NTSB wrote that the pilot contacted Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center shortly after the departure of Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee shortly before 13:15 on 4 June 2023. Around 15 minutes later, however, the pilot no longer responded to air traffic control despite “repeated attempts.”
Researchers say that it is likely that the pilot became incapacitated for work during climbing to that cruising height and that it is likely that the aircraft was led by the Autopilot for the rest of the flight to the point where the steering approach could no longer keep control.
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After reaching a height of 34,000 feet, the plane continued to fly at that height – and about an hour later it is his intended destination on Long Island overfilled and it was all about Washington, DC
About two minutes before the crash, United Air Force pilots were authorized to make contact with the plane – which led to a “sonic tree” that was heard by many in the neighborhood – and they noticed that the pilot was sitting in his chair. Moreover, no movement was not observed in any of the other passengers.
Then, at 3:22 PM, the plane entered “a rapidly decreasing right spiral -shaped descent” and landed in a wooded area near Montebello, from.
A study showed that maintenance personnel noticed a number of problems in the days and weeks before the crash, including “multiple related to the printing and environmental control system”, as well as a missing oxygen mask on pilot-side.
The report noted that there was no evidence that these issues were resolved before the flight.
According to the NTSB, the pilot had medication conditions, including high blood pressure and cholesterol, and was prescribed medicines that could lead to a depreciation. However, they found “no evidence” that the pilot had an “exceptionally high disability risk” or had used his medicines inappropriate at the time of the crash.
“Based on the circumstances of the accident,” the NTSB wrote, “it is likely that all occupants of the aircraft were incapacitated for work because of a common environmental condition, such as loss of cabin pressure.”
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