On the seventh of June 2026, a Gulfstream G200 crashed at La Romana Worldwide Airport within the Dominican Republic, killing each pilots. The dual-engine enterprise jet, registered within the US as N318JF, was owned by Aibonito Aviation, primarily based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It had arrived in La Romana to refuel as part of a repositioning flight to Texas, US, to select up a personal passenger. La Romana Airport has a single concrete runway, 11/29, with a size of two,950 metres (9,700 toes). The crew names have been launched; each have been skilled pilots with expertise on sort and present medicals.
The flight departed usually from runway 11 at 15:30 native time / 19:30 UTC. ADSB knowledge reveals the plane climbing to the southwest to eight,400 toes. At about 16 miles out from La Romana, the flight crew declared an emergency and have been rapidly cleared for an emergency touchdown on runway 11. The plane initiated a left-hand flip again in the direction of La Romana and descended for method to runway 11 however initiated a go-around, persevering with previous the airport. After circling northeast of the airport, the plane lined as much as land on runway 29.
Movies of the touchdown present the plane veering off of the runway. The undercarriage collapses and the left-hand engine is ripped away. The jet then burst into flames. Each pilots have been killed within the fireplace, the plane was destroyed.
Warning: this video, displaying two completely different viewpoints from the bottom, is tough to look at.
It’s troublesome to search out provenance on viral movies at this stage. I’ve seen a number of accusations that the movies are generated by AI (is that this the brand new “appears photoshopped”?!). I can verify that the a number of angles I’ve seen all agree and that the video matches the media accounts.
YouTuber Capn Bloggs has uploaded two of the movies from unnamed sources that are slowed down to 2 frames per second.
The primary video reveals the G200 within the air with vapour on the trailing edge. The G200’s jettison shops sit between aileron and flap, so that is seemingly the flight crew jettisoning gasoline to get their touchdown weight down.
On this slowed model of the video, the windsock is clearly seen within the path of journey, displaying that the G200 landed with a tailwind that AVweb calculates at 8.7 knots.
I’ve not discovered the ATC interactions or official particulars on what the emergency may need been, although native media have reported an engine failure. FL360aero stories a hydraulic drawback however doesn’t give any supply and will get the registration incorrect. Neither situation would trigger the plane to be unsafe for touchdown; nevertheless, a hydraulic failure would trigger degraded braking on the bottom.
Within the Dominican Republic, the Comisión Investigadora de Accidentes de Aviación (CIAA) is the investigative physique charged with main the investigation, with the US representing the state of registration and Israel representing the state of manufacture.
Nonetheless, the Consejo de Capitanes (lit: Council of Captains, a think-tank of Dominican-born captains working for US airways) have requested for the investigation to be led by the US. Francisco Diaz, the founder and president of the Consejo de Capitanes, has launched a press release (in Spanish) which refers back to the new ICAO process underneath Annex 13. This modification to Annex 13, which comes into pressure in November 2028, is to deal with issues of regulatory our bodies with conflicts of curiosity, particularly referencing the recognized drawback the place investigative stories are merely by no means launched in any respect (I’ve a variety of these in my pending record!).
Francisco Diaz writes that the CIAA has nonetheless not launched a remaining report within the case of a Gulfstream G-IVSP which crashed within the Dominican Republic in 2021. The preliminary report confirmed that the crash was brought on by a upkeep error, during which the hydraulic traces for the spoilers have been incorrectly related, rendering the plane uncontrollable. There are claims that the regulatory physique accountable for the airline, the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC), had acquired many stories of upkeep points from pilots earlier than the crash. Francisco Diaz factors out that the present director of CIAA was, on the time of the crash, the director of the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation, which might essentially be a part of the investigation.
As but, there is no such thing as a assertion from the CIAA aside from that they’re investigating.
