The Challenger 600 business jet was in a hurry to get out of Dodge. One person out of eight, a pilot, survived the attempt.
They weren't trying to outrun weather. The weather was already there; they flew into it and landed 45 minutes earlier.
The story.
In post 525 Q mentions "Running". Could that be as in making a getaway? Who was on board?
The jet is owned by the Arnold & Itkin law firm. It's destination was France. Three pilots and five passengers were on board.
The linked article above says Arnold et al is an "anti ICE" law firm. If any of the occupants were fleeing the country due to an association with something going on in Minneapolis that would be big news.
Moar musing in the comments.
The Challenger 600 is an old business jet. Production ran from 1980 to 1983. It had a price of $9 million without any options. The used market today values this aircraft at around $1 million.
In 2025 it cost roughly $10,000 an hour to operate if flown regularly.
Not a "pricey" plane for a top law firm, but still a valuable asset.
This jet requires two pilots. A third (relief) pilot was also on board. Would one or more of the law firm principles be on board? Most likely.
Given the weather conditions, would the pilots have been excited to take off into weather that airliners would not? Why didn't the pilots decline to fly in that weather? Did the ranking passenger insist?
What was the hurry? Why did they fly from Houston, to Bangor and then attempt to go to France? Even in a CL600 that's long time in the air at FL390 doing 425 knotts. Paris is a 5000 mile trip so call it 13 to 14 hours plus a fuel stop.
Hopefully they had data and flight deck recorders installed.