Justice for Dana

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed against private plane provider and operator Airshare – the Official Private Aviation Partner of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Official Private Aviation Provider for the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup – and aircraft manufacturer Bombardier arising from the March 2023 death of U.S. State Department veteran Dana Hyde. The lawsuit makes clear that a series of egregious errors by the Airshare crew of a Bombardier Challenger 300 caused them to lose control of the aircraft resulting in extreme Gravitational-force oscillations and causing Ms. Hyde’s violent, preventable death from blunt-force trauma.

Ms. Hyde, a 55-year-old mother of two, spent her career in public service, including posts in the Clinton and Obama Administrations and as counsel to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Congressional Commission). She went on to lead the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent U.S. development and aid agency that partners with the world’s poorest countries.

"Dana was the best person I ever knew. She was a wonderful mother to our boys and a committed public servant to this country who never stopped looking out for the underdog," said Jonathan Chambers, Ms. Hyde's widower, who was on the flight with her and their teenage son. "She lost her life on a 17-minute flight that never should have taken off. We're bringing this case because Dana would have done the same for any other family, and we hope it ensures no one else has to."

Contrary to erroneous and misleading initial accounts following the accident, there was no turbulence – turbulence played no part whatsoever in the accident. Ms. Hyde’s death was caused by pilot error, the crew’s gross negligence, Airshare’s operational carelessness and Bombardier’s defective flight manuals. The mid-flight tragedy would not have occurred if Airshare’s crew had taken any one of the many opportunities they had to comply with the aircraft’s flight manual, guides and instructions. At more than nine distinct opportunities, they recklessly did not follow the proper protocols that would have prevented their loss of control of the aircraft and prevented Ms. Hyde’s death.

The lawsuit echoes the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation, which concluded that: “The sequence of events that ultimately led to the accident originated with the [Airshare] flight crew’s failure to remove the right pitot probe cover before takeoff and their subsequent decision to depart with a No-Go CAS message.”  The pitot probe provides airspeed data critical to flight safety. The Airshare crew neglected to remove the cover from the probe prior to the first take-off, which had to be aborted.  The aborted take-off triggered a No-Go CAS (Crew Alerting System) message in the cockpit -- a specific cockpit warning, caution, or advisory that strictly prohibits aircraft takeoff.

Compounding their error, the crew elected to undertake a second takeoff despite the plane’s "No-Go" CAS message – meaning the plane's own systems were warning the pilots not to takeoff with the aircraft unfit for safe flight.

The NTSB further concluded that “the crew’s continuation of the flight with an unairworthy airplane directly contributed to the subsequent series of CAS [visual and audible warning] messages, which the crew mis-diagnosed during the climb, resulting in the in-flight upset and loss of airplane control.”

The final NTSB report goes on to state that, once airborne and faced with multiple illuminated cautions and auditory alerts, the pilots should have terminated the flight and immediately landed. Instead, the pilots inexplicably and fatefully executed the steps of the wrong checklist, causing the plane to experience sudden and violent midair distress slamming Ms. Hyde repeatedly against the ceiling, floor, and seats of the airplane. The NTSB's findings conclude that Ms. Hyde’s death resulted from the crew’s errors and inattention to the details of flying this plane and a series of faulty choices.

Private jet charter and fractional-ownership companies have grown rapidly in the last few years. As it has grown, Airshare has enlisted the Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, to serve as its ambassador for nearly a decade.

More than three years after its egregious errors, and despite the NTSB’s determination that Airshare’s crew caused the accident, Airshare has not publicly acknowledged its responsibility or expressed remorse for its crew’s actions that led to Ms. Hyde’s untimely death.