The pilot of the private jet that fatally crashed in Virginia appeared to have passed out while the aircraft continued to eerily fly, leaving the Cessna to become what is known in aviation circles as a “ghost plane.”
The tragedy was chillingly reminiscent of the Oct. 25, 1999, crash involving a Learjet 35A that lost cabin pressure and flew aimlessly across the US with famed PGA golfer Payne Stewart aboard.
Stewart, three other passengers and the two pilots were killed when the plane crashed in a South Dakota pasture.
It remains unclear what caused the twin-engine Cessna Citation V involved in Sunday’s crash to make a U-turn over Long Island as it was headed to MacArthur Airport.
For some reason, the jet turned toward Virginia, where it eventually crashed in a rural area, killing all four people aboard, including a Hamptons Realtor and her young daughter.
Several F-16 fighter jets were scrambled near Washington, DC, to intercept the wayward aircraft, which eventually dropped at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing in the St. Mary’s Wilderness in an apparent near-nosedive.
The jets created sonic booms when they broke the sound barrier in their race to get to the plane, startling local residents.
“During this event, the NORAD aircraft also used flares – which may have been visible to the public – in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.
Reportedly killed in the crash were Adina Azarian, 49, a real-estate broker in East Hampton, her 2-year-old daughter, the child’s nanny and the pilot.
Azarian’s parents are politically active, having donated $250,000 to the Trump Victory PAC in 2020, records show.
The jet fighters saw that the pilot of the doomed jet, which belonged to Azarian’s father, appeared to be unconscious as the aircraft continued to fly, a US official told ABC News — creating the “ghost plane.”
The jet seemed to be flying on autopilot before it crashed, a source familiar with the incident added to Reuters.
Aviation experts have speculated that hypoxia may have rendered the pilot and passengers incapacitated.
Hypoxia “occurs when there is not enough oxygen in the cabin,” aviation expert Steve Ganyard told ABC News.
“The pressure should keep enough air in the cabin to stay alert and stay awake. In this case, it can happen insidiously where you lose consciousness, you begin to feel tingling, you get a sense of euphoria, and it very slowly overcomes the people in the cabin,” he said.
The tragedy brought back memories of Stewart’s crash as the golf star was en route from Orlando, Fla., to Dallas, Texas.
The Stewart aircraft crew had received clearance to climb to an altitude of 39,000 feet but then ceased responding to air traffic control – prompting fighter jets to be deployed to intercept that so-called “ghost plane.”
The fighter pilots reported that the jet appeared to be undamaged and was flying normally, although in radio silence, while the cockpit windows were opaque with ice or condensation.
After four hours, the plane ran out of fuel and dove toward the ground at supersonic speed before crashing.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was incapacitation of the flight crew because of their failure to use supplemental oxygen after a loss of cabin pressure.
A “possible explanation for the failure of the pilots to receive emergency oxygen is that their ability to think and act decisively was impaired because of hypoxia before they could don their oxygen masks,” the NTSB said.
“No definitive evidence exists that indicates the rate at which the accident flight lost its cabin pressure; therefore, the Safety Board evaluated conditions of both rapid and gradual depressurization,” the agency added.
Other notable examples of “ghost plane” fatalities include a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle, a twin-engine propeller plane, which fell into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2012 after circling over the ocean for more than two hours with its unresponsive pilot, cosmetic surgeon Peter Hertzak.
The plane took off from Slidell, La., on a flight to Sarasota, Fla., with the single pilot on board and reached an altitude of about 28,000 feet before it began to fly erratically.
Two F-15 fighter jets sent to intercept the plane reported that its windows were either iced or fogged over.
“At 28,000 feet, you don’t have an awful lot of useful consciousness without the support of oxygen or being in a pressurized aircraft,” aviation expert Miles O’Brien told CNN at the time.
If a pilot is incapacitated at that altitude, “there aren’t a lot of options for resuscitating him and getting him back flying,” he said.
On Aug. 14, 2005, Helios Airways Flt. 522 crashed near Grammatiko, Greece, killing all 121 passengers and crew onboard during a flight from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Prague, Czech Republic.
Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the pilots after everyone onboard the Boeing 737 suffered from hypoxia because the pressurization system had not been set back to automatic by ground workers.
Investigators determined that the flight crew overlooked warning signals about the incorrect setting.
Pilots aboard two F-16s that were scrambled reported that they saw oxygen masks deployed in the cabin but that not everyone was wearing them, Simple Flying reported.
In the cockpit, they observed that the first officer was slumped over the controls, and the captain’s seat was empty.
The fighter pilots later saw flight attendant Andreas Prodromou — apparently the only person onboard who was still conscious — in the captain’s seat putting his headphones on, but they were unable to attract his attention.
Prodromou, an experienced scuba diver and licensed private pilot, managed to use portable oxygen to enter the cockpit, and he tried to take control of the plane before it ran out of fuel.
“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Helios Airways Flight 522, Athens… Mayday! Mayday!” he screamed on the radio before he noticed the F-16s nearby.
In his final act, the hero crew member pointed downward before the plane plummeted to the ground, according to the aviation site.
Helios Airways shut down in November 2006.
