Renowned former official of the White House died on Friday following a severe turbulence mid-flight, reports revealed.
The former White House official under former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama died after experiencing stability issues and encountered severe turbulence mid-flight while on a private business jet flight.
According to the reports, prominent Washington attorney Dana Hyde was on her way back to Maryland from a trip in New England with her husband when the severe turbulence occured.
Following the incident, the National Transportation Safety Board started investigating “a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the in-flight upset” which reportedly affected the plane’s altitude control that might have caused the instability.
The Washington Post reported that the 55 year old Washington attorney was returning to Maryland with her husband, Jonathan Chambers, and one of her sons.
In an exclusive report published by The Guardian, it was revealed that the family “flew on a Bombardier aircraft owned by the Kansas City-based rural broadband consulting firm Conexon, where Chambers is a partner, from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, before the plane was diverted to Bradley international airport in Connecticut.”
After the incident, Chambers wrote an email to employees and clients, describing that “the plane suddenly convulsed in a manner that violently threw the three of us.”
Chambers also added that Hyde was “badly injured and was rushed to a hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was pronounced dead after she reportedly suffered from blunt-force injuries.
Hyde was known for her work as a counsel on the 9/11 Commission who investigated the deadly World Trade Center terrorist attack.
“She spent time as a special assistant during Clinton’s administration and then as a senior adviser in the US state department during Obama’s presidency. She went on to become an associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget,” The Guardian added.
In 2020 and 2021, Hyde served as co-chairperson for the Aspen Partnership for an Inclusive Economy.
“During her time with us, Dana was a brilliant and generous colleague who worked closely with programs across the organization to build partnerships and enhance our collective work. The thoughts of our entire Aspen Institute community are with Dana’s family and loved ones,” an Aspen spokesperson, Jon Purves, said in a statement.
The NTSB later tweeted that aviation investigators expect to know more about the circumstances of Hyde’s death after “they analyze information from the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and other sources of information like weather data.”
It also added that the preliminary report on the incident is expected to be released in two to three weeks.
