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On Sunday, a business jet flew off course and over the nation’s capital before it crashed in rural Virginia, killing the pilot and three passengers. Federal investigators are now looking into the cause of the crash, and a leading theory is a loss of oxygen. Experts caution against jumping to conclusions, as they are still in the early stages of the investigation.
Hypoxia is the condition that occurs when someone’s brain is deprived of adequate oxygen. In aviation, hypoxia can happen if a non-pressurized plane flies above 10,000 feet without supplemental oxygen or if there is a rapid decompression during a flight, or a malfunction of the oxygen or pressurization systems. Oxygen pressure decreases as altitude increases, which is why planes are pressurized and why mountaineers carry supplemental oxygen on high-altitude climbs. It is also why flight attendants explain to passengers how to use oxygen masks in the unlikely event that cabin pressure is lost during a commercial flight.
The Sunday crash wasn’t the first time a flight ended up far from its destination under mysterious circumstances. Anthony Brickhouse, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board and an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said that aircraft are often set to fly on autopilot “so if the pilot goes hypoxic or loses consciousness, that aircraft is just going to fly whatever route it was programmed to fly.”
William Waldock, a professor of safety science who teaches aircraft accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said that the pilot would have had about 45 seconds to a minute to put on an oxygen mask. “Whatever hit him, hit him fast enough to where the pilot didn’t really have too much time to get on the emergency oxygen system,” Waldock said.
Flight tracking sites showed the plane suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) per minute before crashing in the St. Mary’s Wilderness. Waldock said the plane likely ran out of fuel, given its rapid descent and the lack of a very large fire at the crash site.
The fighter jet pilots who caught up with the business jet said its pilot appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive, which could mean that the aircraft did not have a “catastrophic” pressurization failure. If it had, the interior windows would have frosted over from quickly changing pressure at 34,000 feet. Plus, there likely would have been other damage to the plane, which kept flying.
Brickhouse said it’s possible the pilot was disoriented and may have “tried to reprogram a flight computer or something like that.” “That’s definitely something that investigators will be looking into,” Brickhouse said.
One of the most well-known crashes involving hypoxia was the 1999 crash of a Learjet that lost cabin pressure and flew halfway across the country on autopilot before running out of gas and crashing in a South Dakota pasture, killing professional golfer Payne Stewart and five others. In 2014, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying 239 passengers and crew had multiple theories, one of which was a slow or sudden decompression, causing a loss of oxygen, that could have killed everyone on board. In 2005, Greek investigators said pilots on a Cypriot airliner did not realize an automatic pressurization system was set to “manual” when a loss of cabin pressure and oxygen led to hypoxia and the plane’s crash in Greece, killing all 121 people on board.
As federal investigators continue to look into the crash of the unresponsive business jet in Virginia, they will be considering the possibility of a loss of oxygen as a potential cause. Experts caution against jumping to conclusions, as the investigation is still in its early stages.
Title: Investigating the Loss of Oxygen as a Potential Cause of the Unresponsive Business Jet Crash in Virginia