Homage to Heroes

On February 9, 2024, a Bombardier Challenger 600 jet crashed on I-75 in Naples, killing the two pilots. Flight attendant Sydney Ann Bosmans and the two passengers, Audra Gren and Aaron Baker, survived after Bosmans, despite having no training in how to open the luggage compartment from inside, managed to do so and allowed the three to escape the burning plane.  

On Tuesday, April 21 – last week – WGCU-TV, the Southwest Florida public broadcasting outlet, premiered a documentary about the crash, titled “Flight 823 – Homage to Heroes.” The film noted that the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, had not issued its final report, over two years after the crash. Two days later, the NTSB released the report.  

The WGCU documentary focuses strongly on the rapid and efficient efforts of local first responders. There was a rescue helicopter just suiting up and getting ready to fly to a public event and put on a presentation, and that chopper was on scene within 90 seconds of the crash being reported. The first ground units from the North Collier Fire Control & Rescue District were on the site in two minutes.  

The crash was an “all hands” event, with multiple agencies responding, said Brent Lowell, battalion chief and air rescue specialist with North Collier Fire. Even the Marco Island Fire-Rescue Dept. participated, as deputy chief Matt Marshall happened to be in the area, and pitched in to help out.  

“I was driving on my way home and I heard the call come in, so I responded,” said Marshall. “In this county, we all work together all the time. We train together, and we respond together.”  

Marshall checked the Wyndemere neighborhood on the opposite side of the wall that the jet impacted when it came down on the southbound lanes of I-75 just north of Golden Gate Parkway. With heavy traffic and no ability to maneuver due to complete engine failure, the jet struck a pickup truck, caromed off the highway and slammed into the retaining wall, immediately bursting into an intense fireball.  

The pilots, Capt. Edward Daniel Murphy and first officer Ian Hoffman had no chance to escape. The quick action by flight attendant Bosmans, said Marshall, likely saved her own and her passengers’ lives. “She was really a hero,” he said. 

Why the twin-engine jet lost power in both engines has been debated for two years. The NTSB report declares the crash of the aircraft, operated by Ft. Lauderdale-based Hop-A-Jet, was caused by corrosion in the internal components of the jet engines, reported Aviation International News.  

Tests revealed “corrosion was observed in the high-pressure compressor (HPC) case flow path area, with the most significant corrosion found in the VG stage 5 area. Extensive corrosion was observed in the HPC case VG stage 5 stator vane spindle bores. 

“It is likely the corrosion limited the VG hardware travel as the flight crew reduced the power for landing, resulting in near-simultaneous, sub-idle rotating compressor stalls and a subsequent loss of thrust in both engines, which was unrecoverable at the low altitude.” 

Aviation experts noted that simultaneous flaming out of multiple jet engines is extremely rare, said Juan Browne of aviation website Blancolirio. He noted a comment from the plane’s first officer caught on the cockpit recorder seconds before they crashed – “this # airplane.” Browne noted that the South Florida home of the downed craft is known in the aviation industry as the “corrosion corner” of the U.S. 

“It would be extremely irresponsible for anyone to question the NTSB report, as none of us had the privilege of being in the lab when they inspected the wreckage,” said Marco Island’s Kevin Dohm, a veteran airline pilot with over 33,000 hours of flying time. “But it’s so rare to have jet engines flame out. To have both engines flame out simultaneously – in all my years, I’ve never seen that.”  

Dohm wondered about what he could not find in the final report: the amount of fuel the craft had on board when it flew from Palm Beach, Florida, to the Ohio State University airfield in Columbus, Ohio. “We know they took on 350 gallons in Ohio, but how much fuel was in the tank? I can’t find that in the report.”  

After the premiere of “Homage to Heroes” at First Naples Church, the station held a panel discussion, moderated by reporter and producer Jennifer Crawford. WGCU reporter Sandra Viktorova, who reported the film, said that the flight’s survivors chose not to participate in the production. As is often the case in such crashes, there is litigation underway, with Hop-A-Jet suing both Bombardier Learjet, who built the plane, and engine manufacturer GE, as well as additional service providers.  

WGCU-TV aired its documentary on April 21, and after revising the ending to reflect the NTSB findings, will rebroadcast it on May 11 at 10:00 PM, said Viktorova.