Accidents
Citation Crash Provides Lessons on Family Assistance
Tricia Coffman told the 2020 Air Charter Safety Symposium how family assistance makes a difference in a crash aftermath.

On February 15, 2005, Tricia Coffman did not want her husband to step aboard a private jet the next day. She asked him to fly commercial, worried about his safety.  He promised her that he would be fine and that no matter what he would find his way back to her. The next day, her husband, David Joseph Coffman, Sr., awoke early and departed for a trip from Richmond, Virginia, to Santa Ana, California aboard one of his company’s Cessna Citation 560s.

Operated by Martinair, Circuit City’s Citation 560, N500AT, had scheduled fuel stops in Columbia, Missouri, and Pueblo, Colorado. The twinjet crashed as it headed toward the second fuel stop on a ranch 4 nm east of Pueblo Memorial Airport, killing two crew and all six passengers, including 34-year-old David Coffman.