Business jet crash michigan ntsb report pilots test flight

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Thursday that the pilots of a fatal business jet crash in Michigan were conducting a test flight themselves after repairs, instead of waiting for a test pilot, when the plane crashed into a forest near Lansing.

A Mexican-registered Raytheon Hawker 800XP aircraft crashed in Bath Township, Michigan, on October 16, killing all three people on board.

According to the NTSB, the plane had been parked in Battle Creek, Michigan, for seven months for maintenance before the crash.

The work involved removing a section of wing, which required pilots to test fly it in an aerodynamic stall—a maneuver in which the plane loses lift—before it could be returned to service.

The report states that when the crew arrived to pick up the plane, the maintenance company, Duncan Aviation, suggested they hire a test pilot to perform the stall test.

"The captain was provided with a list of experienced test pilots for post-maintenance stall test flights," the NTSB stated in the report. "However, after being unable to coordinate a stall test flight with a test pilot, the flight crew decided to conduct the post-maintenance stall test themselves."

Publicly available flight tracking data from the ADS-B exchange shows the plane descending sharply—at times reaching speeds of 24,000 feet per minute. Bystanders captured video showing the jet rapidly descending toward the ground, then disappearing behind houses before a large, black plume of smoke appeared.

Two pilots working for the jet owner and their maintenance representative were killed in the accident.

The NTSB noted that the pilot manual for the aircraft stated that pilots conducting stall tests "should have prior experience with stalls in a Hawker and should be prepared for unacceptable stall behavior at any time."

Investigators are working to determine the cause of the accident and will make a final determination in about a year.

The report states that the NTSB has investigated at least three other incidents involving business jets undergoing stall tests.

In February 2024, two pilots of a similar Hawker business jet died in Utah while conducting a test flight after maintenance. The flight was to test the aircraft's system that warns of aerodynamic stalls.