A private jet that crashed while trying to take off during a historic snow storm was packed with so much fuel that it exploded multiple times, killing all six on board.
The Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 650 flipped during takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine on January and burst into flames.
Top lawyer Tara Arnold, 46, chef Nick Mastrascusa, 43, wine expert Shelby Kuyawa, 34, event planner Shawna Collins, 39, pilot Jacob Hosmer, 47, and co-pilot Jorden Reidel, 33, were all killed.
The plane was owned by Arnold’s husband’s law firm Arnold & Itkin, and was flying to Paris for a location scouting trip for a new travel venture being set up by the couple.
Bangor is the closest airport in the US to Europe and the plane stopped there to refuel after arriving from Houston. It was loaded with 19,872lbs of fuel when it crashed, causing multiple explosions and a massive fireball.
Crash investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on the tragedy that criticized the delay in taking off after de-icing.
The report didn’t specify a cause for the crash – which will be included in the full report later this year – but aviation experts believe the de-icing delay to be at fault.
The plane should have waited no more than nine minutes from the start of when the deicing treatment began before taking off in those cold and snowy conditions, according to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.
But the NTSB report found 17 minutes passed before takeoff.
Top lawyer Tara Arnold, 46, (left) was on a location scouting trip with private chef Nick Mastrascusa, 43, (center) for luxury travel company Beyond, which she started as a side venture with her husband Kurt Arnold (right)
The Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 650 flipped during takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine on January and exploded in a fireball
The cockpit voice recorder captured Hosmer commenting that it was ‘standard’ to have 14 to 18 minutes between deicing and takeoff, the report stated.
Hosmer said that if the wait was more than 30 minutes, they would return to the ramp to have the plane retreated, and Reidel concurred.
Aviation safety consultant John Cox said that comment ‘makes me wonder if they actually ran the time’ because the guidelines made it clear they didn’t have that much time.
The FAA guidelines on how long a plane can wait before taking off are an estimate of how long the deicing treatment will keep the wings free of ice, which is crucial for flight.
Regulations dictate that pilots should never take off with ice on their wings because it can cause crashes.
The deicing process includes treating a plane with two different chemicals. The first one is designed to remove any ice from the plane. The second chemical helps prevent ice from accumulating again.
The FAA calculated the recommended holdover time from the start of the application of the second anti-icing chemical, which happened at 7.27pm before the Bangor crash. The plane didn’t try to take off until 7.44pm.
Jacob Hosmer, 47, the pilot of the private jet, said it was ‘standard’ to have 14 to 18 minutes between deicing and takeoff – but FAA guidelines recommend nine minutes in those conditions
Jorden Reidel, 33, was heard agreeing with Hosmer’s assessment over the plane’s radio
The plane should have waited no more than nine minutes from the start of when the deicing treatment began before taking off in those cold and snowy conditions, according to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines
The plane actually sat at the deicing pad for almost five minutes after it was treated while it restarted its engines, the report found.
And even after it reached the runway it sat for almost four more minutes before the pilots told the tower they were ready to takeoff.
‘We know this much. The airplane exceeded the holdover time chart,’ Cox, who is the chief executive of Safety Operating Systems and a former airline pilot, said.
Another plane had just aborted takeoff, radioing to the tower that they chose not to fly because visibility wasn’t great and they would need another application of deicing fluid.
The Allegiant Air Boeing 737 Max headed for St Petersburg in Florida aborted its takeoff after manually checking its wings for ice.
‘One, our deice fluid has failed, and two, I don’t think the visibility is good enough for us to go, so we’re going to have to taxi back to the gate here,’ the pilot told air traffic control of its reasons for aborting.
The pilots confirmed to the tower that ice was found just minutes after anti-ice was applied, and the light, powdery snow was sticking to the plane.
‘I don’t know what blew over the end of the runway, but the visibility dropped and it stuck to us like there’s nothing there,’ one of them said.
Shelby Kuyawa, 34, successful wine expert, was also on the plane
Reidel married his wife Jennifer in April 2022 and they had their first child, a girl, in August 2024
Tara Arnold, 46, wife of personal injury attorney Kurt Arnold, died in the crash. The couple are pictured with their children Jaxon and Isla
A Breeze Airways plane’s pilots responded that they ‘might end up staying the night’ after encountering the same problems.
‘Yeah, my guys are trying to make us go, but I keep telling them this is stupid,’ they said.
The snow would eventually accumulate to about 9.5 inches, but it was only beginning at the time of the crash.
Investigators, who were initially hampered by the extreme weather conditions, recovered the cockpit voice and data recorders for analysis.
After it crashed, the plane landed upside down on the runway and burst into flames. The airport remained closed for several days afterward.
‘There were multiple airport CCTV cameras that captured the airplane during the takeoff,’ the report stated.
‘Several of these cameras showed the airplane impact the ground followed by multiple explosions as the impact sequence progressed.’
More than two decades ago there were two other fatal crashes involving ice buildup on a Bombardier Challenger 600 similar to the Arnold jet in Birmingham, England; and Montrose, Colorado.
Crash investigators found a series of scrapes on the runway beginning about 5,808ft from the approach end of the runway, 42ft to the right of the runway centerline
The debris field was about 1,270ft long and 150ft wide
There have been several other incidents involving this plane model where icing contributed to an unexpected roll on takeoff in cold weather but pilots were able to recover in those cases.
The FAA published new rules in 2005 to make clear to pilots and airports that even a small amount of frost on the wings can be a problem.
This was ‘prompted by a report that even small amounts of frost, ice, snow or slush on the wing leading edges or forward upper wing surfaces can cause an adverse change’.
Even 1/64th of an inch of ice is enough to be dangerous, the NTSB said in an earlier report into a similar crash.
The FAA also clarified the standards for deicing to make certain that all frozen particles are removed from the wings, and it required a combination of tactile and visual inspections.
Bombardier was also required to add a cold weather operations warning to the plane’s flight manual, but more than 1,000 of these Challenger 600s have been delivered, and the manufacturer said they are designed to be safe.
Crash investigators found a series of scrapes on the runway beginning about 5,808ft from the approach end of the runway, 42ft to the right of the runway centerline.
The debris field was about 1,270ft long and 150ft wide.
The Bombardier Challenger 650 business jet went down during takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine around 7.45pm on Sunday, killing six people on board
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and FAA, said the preliminary report ‘removes some of the mystery of what happened here.’
‘There is no doubt in my mind that the loss of control at liftoff – which was accompanied with an aerodynamic stall warning and sudden right bank – was likely due to snow and ice contamination on the right wing,’ he said.
He said the pilots’ comments about how long they could wait before getting a second deicing treatment raises questions about how much experience the Texas-based crew had with flying in cold weather.
Guzzetti told the Daily Mail days after the crash that the most likely culprit was a buildup of ice on at least one of the wings, causing the plane to stall and flip over.
He explained that the wing design of the Bombardier CL-600 series made it more vulnerable than most planes to problems with ice.
The ‘supercritical wing’ design reduces drag during cruising, but make it more likely to stall and suffer a rapid loss of lift with any disturbed airflow across the front edge of the wing within seconds of the plane starting its climb off the runway.
Pilots have described the Bombardier CL-600 series’ wings as being ‘unforgiving’ and ‘very light in the pitch axis’.
To remove ice, aircraft are sprayed with a de-icing solution and then treated with an anti-ice spray to prevent it from forming before they take off (stock image)
Weather cameras capture the poor visibility at the airport around the time of the crash
The NTSB will examine that as well as the procedures the airport used in the deicing process, the quality of the chemicals applied and every other factor that could have contributed to the crash.
The international airport in Bangor, about 235 miles north of Boston and 130 miles north of Portland, is one of the closest in the US to Europe and is often used to refuel private jets flying overseas.
Arnold, 46, planned the trip as part of her new luxury travel company Beyond, a source close to the passengers told the Daily Mail.
Beyond provides invitation-only curated travel experiences for the extremely wealthy, including stays at five-star resorts and exotic culinary adventures.
The plane was on its way to Châlons Vatry Airport airport near Paris, also close to the Champagne region of France where they planned to tour a French chateau and other stunning locations for future intercontinental jaunts with their elite clients.
