Private Jets Have More Fatal Accidents Than Commercial Planes

At about 2 a.m. on Feb. 20, 2013, private jet pilot Richard Trammell woke up in Greenwood, S.C., and drove an hour to Thomson, Ga., to prepare for a short flight to Nashville, where his client, a vascular surgeon, was scheduled to see patients. Trammell tried to sleep in Nashville but, as his mobile phone records would show, the longest break between text or calls was an hour and five minutes. “I’m kinda out of the loop,” Trammell told his co-pilot, Jeremy Hayden, as they prepared to land back in Thomson that night. As they were about to land, a warning light went off, signaling the antilock brakes weren’t working on their twin-engine Beechcraft. Trammell and Hayden continued anyway, touching the ground for seven seconds before trying to lift off again. But Trammell failed to retract wing panels designed to slow the plane to a stop, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Unable to climb, the Beechcraft lumbered forward, hit a power pole, and burst into flames.

The crash killed the surgeon, Steven Roth, and four of his staff. Trammell, who with Hayden was injured, told NTSB investigators he couldn’t remember the landing. The NTSB found Trammell at fault. The pilots dispute the agency’s finding; in ongoing civil suits, they claim the pole was too close to the runway. “Those who depend on pilots to provide safe transportation deserve pilots who are well-rested and otherwise fit for duty,” NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt wrote in a statement attached to the agency’s final investigative report on the crash. “That did not happen in this case.”