What happened
On the evening of December 17, 2009, the Dassault Mystere 20 aircraft, registered as N28RK, crashed in a remote section of the Great Inagua National Wildlife Refuge in the Bahamas. The flight had originated from Joaquin Balaguer Int’l Airport in the Dominican Republic, following a previous stop in Aruba, with a planned destination of Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida. While the crew was instructed by air traffic control to maintain an altitude of 28,000 feet, the aircraft deviated approximately six miles from its intended flight path.
During the flight, the aircraft's transponder was non-functional. The plane entered a rapid descent without the crew issuing any emergency signals or distress calls. The aircraft struck the terrain at a high speed and a 4-degree angle, triggering a massive explosion and a large-scale post-impact fire that consumed roughly five acres of vegetation. A United States Coast Guard helicopter crew, which was conducting a training mission nearby, witnessed the fireball and attempted to deploy rescue personnel to the site. However, the intense heat and ongoing fire prevented a search for survivors.
The impact was so severe that the aircraft was destroyed, and the crew sustained fatal injuries. Due to the intensity of the fire and the difficult, land-inaccessible terrain, only a small fraction of the aircraft and very limited biological remains were recovered at the scene.
Findings
Investigation of the wreckage indicated that the aircraft hit the ground at a high rate of speed. The distribution of debris, specifically finding engine cowling components located ahead of the primary impact point, suggests the aircraft may have been in an over-speed condition prior to hitting the terrain.