MD Woman Killed On Flight Was A Former White House Official

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — The Maryland woman who died after being injured during severe turbulence on a flight was a former White House and international development official.

Connecticut State Police identified 55-year-old Dana Hyde of Cabin John as the patient who suffered a medical emergency on the business jet with five onboard from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia. The flight was diverted to Bradley International Airport due to the turbulence and Hyde was taken to a Hartford hospital, where she died, police said.

Hyde was flying with her husband and one of her sons on a plane owned by rural broadband consulting firm Conexon, the company told the Washington Post. Neither of her relatives nor the two members of the flight crew were injured, the company and the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The group was heading home from a trip to visit New England schools when, according to Hyde's husband Jonathan Chambers, “the plane suddenly convulsed in a manner that violently threw the three of us," the Post reported.

The plane was a Bombardier Challenger 300, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on Twitter Saturday.

According to the Post, an ambulance was waiting for Hyde when the plane landed, but it was too late.

On Monday, the NTSB said in an update that investigators are looking at a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the inflight upset and will learn more after they analyze information from the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, and other sources of information, like weather data.

According to her bio, Hyde was a mother of two boys and a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in law, public policy, and international development who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations and in the State Department.

Her LinkedIn profile states she was a Georgetown-educated lawyer who earned her B.A. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She most recently worked with the Aspen Institute, a humanitarian nonprofit. She also served as counsel to the 9/11 Commission from 2002 to 2004.

Jon Purves, a spokesman for the Aspen Institute's Partnership for an Inclusive Economy, told NBC News that Hyde was a part-time consultant who served as co-chair of APIE from 2020-2021.

"During her time with us, Dana was a brilliant and generous colleague who worked closely with programs across the organization to build partnerships and enhance our collective work," Purves said. "The thoughts of our entire Aspen Institute community are with Dana’s family and loved ones."