Something disturbing happened tonight at Bangor International Airport and it’s getting almost no scrutiny.
A Bombardier Challenger 650, tail N10KJ, crashed during takeoff in the middle of a winter storm. The plane is inverted on the runway in photos and completely burned out. Fire scanner traffic from Bangor Fire & Rescue was grim almost immediately. Eight people were on board. Authorities haven’t done the formal press wording yet, but anyone looking at the wreckage can see how catastrophic this was.
What’s bothering me is everything around it…
Flight tracking shows the jet taxiing and then just disappearing. Local chatter and witnesses are saying runway conditions were bad and not fully cleared. This is Bangor — a major international diversion airport that handles military traffic and trans-Atlantic flights regularly. If conditions were unsafe, why was a takeoff attempt happening at all during an active storm?
This wasn’t some old beater aircraft either. It’s a 2020 Challenger 650, registered to a Texas LLC. These planes operate with professional crews, strict performance calculations, and conservative margins. Jets like this don’t just flip over on a runway unless something is seriously wrong.
What I’m not seeing yet is any real discussion of airport responsibility, runway condition reports, braking action, or decision-making that led to this takeoff. Just vague “weather” language and then silence.
Maybe this ends up being pilot error. Maybe it’s weather alone. But if a modern business jet can end up inverted and incinerated on a major runway during routine winter operations, that points to a deeper infrastructure or operational failure that nobody seems eager to talk about.
If anyone has METARs, NOTAMs, braking action reports, or local info from BGR around the time of the crash, post it.
Posted by Waste-Explanation-76
4 Comments
All of the above. Safety first period, a pilot should always have the the experience to deny flight until further notice if weather deemed to be unsafe.
Honestly, might’ve been a Kobe Bryant type thing. The pilot was apprehensive about taking off in those foggy conditions, but Kobe was insistent. He was used to flying private and didn’t want to drive.
This plane belonged to a law firm and we all know how those are. Wouldn’t be remotely surprised if the owners were insistent the lawyers needed to get back THAT NIGHT to save money or prepare for an important case etc.
Maine’s quite accustomed to harsh winters so I wouldn’t expect the airport to fully close. ATC was trying to work with the pilot on deicing and gauging their level of comfort. The pilot probably should’ve put their foot down and recognized they weren’t comfortable with it. :/
So not Bill Gates’ plane then?
If you go poke around the aviation subs they had someone that actually knew the pilot. Plane belonged a law firm from Texas, Houston iirc. Was flying to Europe but stopped for fuel. Looked like it sat in the de-icer pit about 20 min, left less than 10min later which checks out for that size plane in those conditions.