The Scissortail Brief | June 1–7, 2026

The FIFA World Cup opens Thursday. A G200 bound for Austin is in pieces in the Dominican Republic. NBAA published its Q1 accident analysis with stabilized approaches and runway excursions again leading the findings. Fuel found a plateau, at least for now. And summer convective weather has fully arrived across the central U.S. This is a big week. Let's get into it.

Safety: G200 Crash at La Romana, Dominican Republic

On June 7, a Gulfstream G200, registration N318JF, crashed at La Romana International Airport (LRM) in the Dominican Republic. Both pilots on board were killed. No passengers were aboard. Graphic videos from several perspectives have been circulating around social media over the weekend. The aircraft had departed La Romana bound for Austin, Texas, declared an emergency approximately 16 nautical miles southwest of the airport, and returned for what became a fatal landing attempt.

The pilots have been identified in Dominican reports as Erick Javier Diago and Rudy Ghazal. The aircraft is a 2004 Gulfstream G200 registered to Aibonito Aviation LLC of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC) confirmed the crew members died and stated that investigators have already begun recovering flight data and evidence from the wreckage.

Flight tracking data showed the aircraft depart La Romana and fly northwest before entering a series of circling maneuvers. The track shows two apparent 360-degree turns over water, an aborted first landing attempt, continued circling, and then a second return to La Romana. Video of the final seconds, widely circulated on social media, shows the aircraft already off the paved runway surface with a plume of dirt behind it and apparent landing gear damage. The jet continues along the runway side before bouncing into a steep nose-high attitude. The nose drops sharply, debris separates including what appears to be nose gear and one engine, the wing fails, and the aircraft erupts into a fireball.

A windsock visible in the video shows what appears to be a strong tailwind relative to the aircraft's direction of travel during that final attempt. The first landing attempt, per flight tracking data, was into the wind.

La Romana has a single runway, 11/29, approximately 9,678 feet long. The investigation is in its earliest stages. No probable cause has been determined.

This accident is especially close to home. The aircraft was bound for Austin, and the pilots lost were working a departure from a Dominican resort airport that U.S.-based bizav operators use regularly. Our sincerest condolences to the families and colleagues of the pilots.

Safety: NBAA Q1 2026 Accident and Incident Analysis

On June 1, NBAA published its Q1 2026 Business Aviation Accident and Incident Analysis, covering 40 safety events involving turbine-powered business aircraft in the first three months of the year. Of those, 25 were accidents, and 15 were incidents. Six were fatal.

By aircraft category, business jets logged seven accidents, one fatal. Turboprops had ten accidents, three fatal. Turbine helicopters logged eight, two fatal.

A Challenger 650, registration N10KJ, went down near Bangor, Maine, on January 25. Six people died. The NTSB's preliminary report states that the crew departed approximately eight minutes after the aircraft's deicing holdover time had elapsed, during active snowfall. A crew decision, under pressure, in difficult conditions.

The NBAA's headline finding from Q1: strict adherence to stabilized approach criteria is crucial, and runway excursions and landing gear events were the most common accident and incident themes. Weather and terrain were significant contributing factors across the quarter, which tracks with first-quarter operations in general.

Mark Larsen, NBAA director of safety and flight operations: "We also continue to see common elements, including runway excursions and landing gear events, along with environmental hazards such as terrain and adverse weather conditions. NBAA encourages members to review this analysis closely, and for safety managers and training coordinators to incorporate these real-world operational challenges into recurrent training scenarios."

The Q1 report is available to NBAA members through the accident analysis portal, which includes ten years of historical data searchable by aircraft category, operation type, and phase of flight. For anyone doing recurrent training planning heading into summer, the stabilized approach and runway excursion findings are the practical starting points.

Fuel: A Plateau, Not Relief

The May national average Jet-A price finalized at $7.93 per gallon, up 20 cents from April. As of June 7, the national average across 3,212 reporting FBOs sits at $7.83 per gallon. The Central region is lowest at $6.87. Alaska is highest at $9.09.

The upward momentum has slowed. That's not the same as prices coming down. Owners and operators across the U.S. are preparing for a long summer, with the May average exceeding all months on record from 2022 when adjusted for inflation.

The global average jet fuel price fell 11.4% week-over-week to $141.64 per barrel at the wholesale level. If that decline holds and passes through to retail, operators could see some relief at the FBO pump in the coming weeks. The spread between wholesale and retail has been wide all spring, and it doesn't compress overnight. For now, the planning baseline remains elevated and operators should continue to treat the Central region pricing advantage as a genuine trip-planning variable.

Traffic: World Cup Week One Begins

The FIFA World Cup kicks off Thursday, June 11, with the opening match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Sixteen host cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Forty-eight teams. One hundred and four matches over six weeks.

WingX data from prior World Cup tournaments shows fuel uplift at host airports running at roughly 1.5 times baseline during the group stage, climbing to 1.9 times during quarterfinals, 5.2 times during semifinals, and up to 12.9 times baseline at the final host airport. Charter demand on host-city routes is forecast to surge 200-300% during the knockout rounds.

North American bizav year-to-date remains ahead of 2025. Through Week 18, global departures were tracking 4.6% above the prior year. The large-cabin softness that's been a recurring theme in this Brief persists. Small cabin and midsize continue to carry the North American growth story.

Full Week 22 and 23 data, which will capture the first match days, will be published by WingX and ARGUS in the coming days. The World Cup is the dominant traffic story for the next six weeks.

Weather Brief: Summer Convective Season Is Here

The central U.S. convective season has fully arrived, and the pattern heading into this week continues it.

A concentrated area of significant severe weather is expected Wednesday, June 10, centered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, associated with a cold front moving from the eastern Dakotas. Severe thunderstorms are forecast through the weekend along a slow-moving cold front from the southern Plains to the Great Lakes, with large hail, damaging wind gusts, and heavy rainfall the primary hazards. Flash flooding is a secondary concern across areas of the southern Plains into the upper Midwest.

By region:

The southern Plains and Texas corridor are in active convective season. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms are the daily pattern from the Red River south to the Hill Country. Density altitudes at Texas airports are climbing into performance-relevant territory on hot afternoons, particularly at fields above 1,000 feet MSL in Central Texas and the Edwards Plateau.

The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes corridor is the most active severe weather area through mid-week. Airspace routing flexibility on north-south transcon legs will be limited. Build time and alternate fuel planning into any leg that threads through that corridor.

The Southeast and Florida are in their standard early-summer afternoon convective pattern. IFR conditions in morning fog are burning off by mid-morning at most fields, with convective buildups firing by early afternoon. Thunderstorm tops are reaching FL400 or above on the most active days.

The Northeast is in a brief settled period following the Memorial Day system. Expect that to change as the cold front arrives from the west mid-week.

The West remains the clear region. High pressure and dry conditions from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast through the end of the week. The Pacific Northwest sees marine stratus in the mornings but is otherwise clean.

World Cup host cities on the radar this week: MetLife/Teterboro corridor will see the cold front arriving mid-week. Dallas/Addison is in the active southern Plains pattern. Miami/Opa-locka is in standard afternoon convective season. Los Angeles is clear.

That's The Brief

The World Cup opening is the biggest event in U.S. bizav demand planning since the Super Bowl. The G200 accident is under investigation and the families of two pilots are grieving. The Q1 accident report puts stabilized approaches and runway discipline back on the training agenda. Fuel has found a level, not a floor. And summer weather across the central U.S. requires the same thing it always requires: a good weather brief and a solid alternate.

The Week in One Sentence: A G200 bound for Austin crashed at La Romana in the Dominican Republic, killing both pilots after what appears to be a tailwind landing attempt following an emergency, NBAA's Q1 accident analysis flagged stabilized approaches and runway excursions as the quarter's dominant themes, Jet-A found a plateau at $7.83 nationally with wholesale prices declining slightly, and the FIFA World Cup opens Thursday at MetLife with bizav demand forecast to surge through the knockout rounds.