A lack of oxygen likely incapacitated the pilot of a private jet that crashed in Virginia in 2023

The Associated Press
May 13, 2025, 5:43 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A lack of oxygen that incapacitated the pilot and three passengers is likely what caused a private jet to become unresponsive before flying over the nation’s capital and prompting the military to scramble fighter jets in 2023, according to a final report from the National Transportation Safety Board released on Tuesday.

The oxygen problem was likely caused by a loss of cabin pressure, according to the report. Investigators could not determine the exact reason for the pressure loss, but they noted that the Cessna Citation had a number of maintenance issues. They included no pilot-side oxygen mask and supplemental oxygen at its minimum serviceable level.

“At that level, oxygen would not have been available to the airplane occupants and passenger oxygen masks would not have deployed in the event of a loss of pressurization,” according to the report. It concluded that, “Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s and owner/operator’s decision to operate the airplane without supplemental oxygen.”

Four people died in the June 4, 2023 accident. They were pilot Jeff Hefner, 69; New York real estate broker Adina Azarian, 49; Azarian’s 2-year-old daughter Aria; and Evadnie Smith, 56, who worked as live-in nanny for Aria. Prior to the crash, Azarian, Aria and Smith were in North Carolina to visit Azarian’s adoptive parents.

Hefner stopped responding to air traffic control instructions within minutes of taking off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, at 1:13 p.m. The plane flew to New York, near its destination at Long Island’s MacArthur Airport, then turned around and flew a straight path over D.C. Fighter jets sent after it caused a loud sonic boom that was heard across the capital region as they raced to catch up. The plane then plunged almost straight down in into a mountain near Montebello, Virginia, and burst into flames at 3:23 p.m.

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