Aviation experts continued to speculate the pilot likely lost consciousness from a lack of oxygen inside the jet.
Authorities secure the entrance to Mine Bank Trail, an access point to the rescue operation along the Blue Ridge Parkway where a Cessna Citation crashed over mountainous terrain near Montebello, Va., on June 4, 2023. | Randall K.
“The most likely scenario right now is a pressurization failure or a mis-setting of the pressurization system,” said Alan Diehl, an aviation psychologist who previously worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Air Force. In the late 1960s, Diehl also helped design the original model of the plane, the Cessna Citation, that crashed in Virginia.
“The one other thing that they probably can’t eliminate at this point is some kind of medical issue,” Diehl said. John Rumpel, the owner of the plane, said his daughter, Adina Azarian, 2-year-old granddaughter, Aria, and the girl’s nanny were the victims, along with the pilot. He said they were returning to their home on Long Island, after visiting his house in North Carolina.
On Monday, it took investigators several hours to hike into the rural area where the plane crashed about 60 miles southwest of Charlottesville. They expected to be on the scene for at least three to four days.
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