An unresponsive aircraft identified as one of the first Daher-Socata TBM 900 single-engined turboprops delivered earlier this year crashed off the coast of Jamaica after flying hundreds of miles beyond its intended destination.
The aircraft is listed by the US Federal Aviation Administration as owned by New 51LG LLC, a company linked to TBM Owners and Pilots association director Larry Glaser.
Daher delivered the first TBM 900 to Glaser in a ceremony on 24 March.
The aircraft was en route from Rochester, New York, to Naples, Florida on 5 September. The aircraft turned southeast over North Carolina, but made no further course changes, according to flight tracking services.
The US North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) scrambled two Boeing F-15s to intercept and escort the unresponsive aircraft.
The occupants of the aircraft did not respond to attempts by the F-15 pilots to communicate, NORAD says.
NORAD continued tracking the TBM 900 by radar, but the F-15s were forced to break off the escort after the aircraft entered Cuban airspace. The TBM 900 was finally tracked descending and crashing about 12nm (26km) around 14:15, NORAD says.
A Daher spokesman was not immediately available to respond to requests for comment.
Daher unveiled the secretly-developed TBM 900 last March as the latest version of the 25-year-old airframe.
It is equipped with newly-designed winglets, a five-blade composite propeller and redesigned spinner, improving speed compared to the TBM 850 by 10kt (19km/h) to 330kt at 28,000ft and range by 300nm (560km) to 1,730nm.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
