Subject: Re: NetJets Fatality
Good analysis here in the video below. Outstanding job by this flight crew in landing that NetJets citation on the freeway. This could have been a far more tragic accident. These guys earned their pay that day. 5 out of 6 survived, including both pilots, so we should have a pretty good understanding soon from the NTSB as to what happened. The one lone fatality was a venture capital high tech CEO, based in Austin. Preliminary findings indicate that they reported mechanical problems, a power outage, and low fuel. My professional opinion is these guys may have had a leak of some kind, fuel contamination, or some other anomaly that interrupted the fuel flow to the engines. If so, then a dual engine flameout could be a reasonable finding, and the aircraft may not have had enough energy, lift, and airspeed to reach the Runway 36L. They could have been faced with a split second decision to glide the aircraft onto any piece of hard surface they could quickly locate, i.e., the freeway to the right and just short of the runway in Laredo. I’m aware of previous civilian and military accidents in the past that occurred due to fuel starvation and that’s probably one of the most challenging and stressful inflight emergencies any crew could ever encounter. [Former military Safety Chief here, with some training and background in accident investigations].

You can’t break that windshield glass. It’s bulletproof (polycarbonate) and made to withstand high impact bird strikes mid-air. Focus should be on trying to open the two entry/exit doors, one up front in this video, and the other emergency hatch in the rear. Thankfully, these brave bystanders eventually did do just that, and were able to pry open the boarding door to get all five survivors out of there relatively quickly. This was really the only way to get these folks out safely, instead of wasting time and energy trying to smash windshields with sledgehammers. They won’t break — at all! Unlike windows in other commercial aircraft, these won’t open from inside, to the best of my knowledge. The pilots can only egress through the boarding door. You can clearly see one of the uniformed pilots exiting through the entry/exit door in video.

This is NetJets first tragic accident and fatality since their founding more than 40 years ago. I know of many excellent pilots who fly for them. They come from all backgrounds, ex-military, corporate, top-tier commercial airlines. They are all selectively chosen and highly trained. SAFETY is paramount there, first and foremost. We own an excellent subsidiary! https://youtu.be/2x8BaZ44Kxw?i...