Image: NTSB
Two dozen discrepancies, including several involving the pressurization and environmental control system, had been detected — but not corrected — in the month before a Cessna Citation 560 spiraled to the ground in the mountains near Montebello, Virginia, U.S., killing the pilot and all three passengers.
The airplane was destroyed in the June 4, 2023, crash, which the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said was caused by pilot incapacitation resulting from a loss of cabin pressure for undetermined reasons. In its final report on the accident, the NTSB cited as a contributing factor the decision by the 34,500-hour air transport pilot and the owner/operator to fly the airplane without supplemental oxygen.
The report added that it was “likely that all the airplane occupants were incapacitated due to a common environmental condition such as loss of cabin pressurization.”
The day of the accident, the airplane left its …
