The FBI is investigating a tragic death after a passenger was killed when the plane they were on was hit by severe turbulence.
As reported by ABC 7, the rare passenger death was caused when a private business jet was hit by turbulence on Friday afternoon (March 3).
Officials said on Saturday that five people were aboard the Bombardier executive jet at the time of the incident, with the passenger's death forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut.
Once the plane had landed, Connecticut State Troopers were called to the scene at around 3:49PM, and one passenger was taken to a nearby hospital in an ambulance.
Sarah Sulick, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said the plane had been traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia.
A spokesperson for the Connecticut State Police has told the Daily Mail that the NTSB and FBI are investigating the "facts and circumstances" surrounding the tragedy.
The Mail reports that flight data shows that the jet had taken off at around 3:35PM and peaked at an altitude of 26,000 feet. After hitting turbulence, it descended and landed approximately 10 minutes later.
No further information about the victim or whether or not they were wearing a seatbelt was provided.
According to National Geographic, turbulence is caused when a plane hits a "chaotic and capricious eddy of air", which has been "disturbed from a calmer state by various forces".
Fortunately, a lot of the things that can cause turbulence (such as temperatures, thunderstorms etc.) are somewhat easy to predict, and pilots have access to instruments and technology to help them navigate the worst areas.
And although deaths caused by turbulence are extremely rare, it isn't necessarily uncommon for injuries to occur.
Earlier this week, ABC 7 reports that seven people had to be taken to hospital after a a Lufthansa Airbus A330 was hit by turbulence while on a scheduled flight from Texas to Germany. However, as a result of the injuries, the plane had to be diverted to Virginia's Washington Dulles International Airport.
Among those onboard was Brazillian model Camila McConaughey (wife of actor Matthew McConaughey), who would later describe the fight as "chaos", before adding: "The turbulence kept on coming."
Between 2009 and 2018, the NTSB states that turbulence accounted for more than 33% of accidents on larger commercial airlines. Although, former NTSB chair Robert Sumwalt says he "can't remember the last fatality due to turbulence".
In response to Friday's tragedy, aviation analyst Jeff Guzzetti has urged people not to be "nervous" and to always "belt yourself in" when instructed to by crew.
