Pilot skill, C.G. implicated in Chowdry crash

The NTSB’s recently released factual report of the crash last year of a privately owned Aero Vodochody L-39 former military jet trainer that killed a Wall Street Journal reporter riding as a passenger and pilot Michael Chowdry, founder and CEO of cargo carrier Atlas Air, draws attention to the pilot’s skill, experience and attitude, as well as possible severe and sudden changes in the airplane’s handling characteristics when it lost the aft canopy during takeoff. In 1999 Chowdry became one of the first customers to own and fly a Boeing Business Jet, and he worked with Boeing to publicize the BBJ.