Former business partners of the pilot who flew the Cessna Citation that crashed in rural Virginia killing four people said he often neglected repairs and took Oxycontin while in the air, a report claims.
Retired Southwest Airlines pilot Jeff Hefner was flying the plane carrying Adina Azarian, 49, her 2-year-old daughter and the child’s live-in nanny, Evadnie Smith, when it crashed on June 4, killing everyone onboard.
Azarian was the daughter of a powerful GOP and NRA donor couple John and Barbara Rumpel.
Two fighter jets were scrambled to investigate the Cessna after it entered restricted airspace over Washington, DC, and reportedly saw Hefner slumped over and unconscious before the plane began losing altitude and crashed.
Hefner’s old business partners, John MacDonald and Rob McBride, have now alleged to The US Sun that he would often fail to carry out repairs on planes and behaved threateningly, including once by pointing a gun at MacDonald.
Those allegations stand in contrast to other comments made of Hefner since his death this month – some even branded him Mr. Safety for his diligence and attention to detail.
The claims were also ‘denied in their entirety’ by Hefner’s lawyers who said there had been business disagreements between the men and questioned why the allegations were only emerging after the pilot’s death.
Pilot Jeff Hefner was at the helm of the Cessna Citation 560 plane that crashed into the Virginia woods on Sunday. Former business partners with whom he was feuding have claimed he was threatening and erratic
Adina Azarian (left), her two-year-old daughter (center) and the child’s nanny Evadnie Smith (right) were killed when a jet they were in crashed in rural Virginia on Sunday
John Rumpel (left) owned the Cessna aircraft that crashed and adopted Azarian with his wife Barbara (right) when she was 40. Rumpel has said it was Hefner’s responsibility to maintain the plane
Hefner, MacDonald and McBride started an aircraft charter business in Florida after they met in 2011, but before long relations soured.
MacDonald and McBride claimed they tried to remove Hefner from the company over claims he was appropriating company money.
Florida bankruptcy court records seen by DailyMail.com suggest that McBride, who was once Hefner’s neighbor, sold his family home and moved due to fears for his family’s safety.
They accused Hefner of ‘pointing a gun at MacDonald and threatening the life of both McBride and MacDonald’ amid disagreements over the business.’
They also claimed Hefner behaved in a ‘threatening and belligerent manner to employees of the business’ and that he had failed ‘to maintain aircraft to appropriate standards’.
Hefner also testified he transferred ownership of certain aircraft to his own name.
MacDonald told The US Sun in an interview that although Hefner was a skilled pilot he was a volatile character and could be complacent about his piloting skills.
‘He was a good pilot, he knew planes better than anyone I’ve ever met. He took off wonderfully and landed wonderfully, and he was just very naturally skilled at it,’ he told the outlet.
‘But the dangerous part of it all was the comments he would make like, “It doesn’t matter, I could take off and land any plane no matter what condition it was in.”‘
During that interview, he also mocked the labeling of Hefner as Mr. Safety. ‘Mr. Safety? My nickname for Jeff would be the Grim Reaper,’ MacDonald told The Sun.
The partners claimed to The US Sun that Hefner told them he often took the drugs while flying, ‘especially when he was flying long distance in the cockpit.’
‘One of the things that ended our relationship and business is that he would take Oxycontin, which he chewed on like he was going crazy,’ MacDonald told the outlet.
‘We caught him with them… he pulled this bottle of pills out from his briefcase and took them with some vodka he’d been keeping in the refrigerator.
‘He told me and Rob that he had two different doctors for two different things, one to okay him to fly and the other he called a “friendly” who would prescribe him Oxy.’
Adina Azarian and her two-year-old daughter died in the plane crash as investigators said it was likely on auto-pilot when it ran out of fuel
In a statement to The US Sun, the Hefner’s family lawyer denied the allegations.
‘On behalf of the family, we categorically deny the attacks upon Jeff’s character or professionalism,’ he wrote.
‘For a more balanced sense of Jeff’s reputation and work ethic, I would speak to the numerous pilots and aviation personnel that he worked with up to and including the day of the tragedy.
‘The specific allegations by Mr. MacDonald and Mr. McBride are denied in their entirety. There were certainly business disputes between the men and no doubt, disagreements can turn nasty, as they clearly did here. It’s easy and convenient to attack someone when they cannot and will never be able to respond.’
MacDonald and McBride also spoke of the moment described in court documents in which Hefner threateningly brandished a gun.
One incident involving a threat with a gun happened in October 2016 during a disagreement over the transportation of aid to the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, they told The US Sun.
MacDonald claims he had bought food, water, generators and other supplies for disaster-stricken Bahamians that he wanted to fly to the Bahamas on company aircraft.
Hefner allegedly stated the items would not be taken to the Bahamas, and when MacDonald made arrangements for supplies to go in a friend’s plane, Hefner allegedly pulled out a gun.
MacDonald claimed Hefner told him: ‘If you touch even one of these things, I’ll blow a hole in your chest.’
‘First of all, you’re not supposed to have a gun on airport property, that’s illegal,’ MacDonald told the publication.
‘But he was desperate. It’s a desperate thing if I was going to take all those supplies needed for people without water, food, and electricity, and he was going to stop all that because I wouldn’t give him the money that he needed for his debt. That’s just financial desperation.’
The pair claimed that months later another threat was made. McBride, who lived next to Hefner, said they were talking in his garden when Hefner proposed a scheme that would enable them to oust MacDonald.
After McBride refused to turn on MacDonald, the was allegedly threatened. ‘I told him, “No because Mr. MacDonald has done nothing wrong. What the hell?” McBride told The Sun.
‘And he said, “You’re either with me or against me, and if you’re against me you and your family better move, and I don’t mean out of the city.”‘
Investigators are yet to establish why the plane went down and if it had voice and data records since it was ‘unrecognizable’ as a plane after the crash
The jet was carrying Azarian, her two-year-old daughter, their nanny and the pilot. It took off at 1.13pm from Elizabethton Airport in Tennessee and was scheduled to land at MacArthur Airport in Islip, on Long Island. Instead, it flew north then performed an about-turn and crashed in Virginia
The pair claimed to The US Sun that Hefner’s volatility was linked to his use of the opiate Oxycontin, which he had been prescribed to deal with back pain.
At around 1.31pm on June 4, the private jet took off from Elizabethtown, Tennessee, headed for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.
The passengers were understood to have been returning to the Hamptons after visiting Azarian’s parents, Trump donors John and Barbara, in North Carolina.
At roughly 2.45pm the plane deviated from its flight path, performed a 180-degree U-turn, and headed south towards DC.
Around 3.20pm, seeing the plane head towards the capital at 34,000ft, the military was authorized to scramble F-16 fighter jets to make contact with the plane.
Residents in three states reported hearing a sonic boom as the jets traveled at supersonic speeds to reach the jet.
At that point the pilots noticed Hefner in the cockpit was unresponsive and unconscious, US officials said.
A few minutes later the plane crashed over mountainous terrain near Montebello, Virginia. It remains unclear what caused the plane to change course and crash.
During the course of his 25 years with Southwest, he accumulated more than 25,000 hours flying time and was also an aircraft mechanic.
Speaking to the Post, Florida lawyer Dan Newlin who often employed Hefner to fly him to various locations, described him as Mr. Safety.
‘When it came to flying, he was always super serious, super cautious and very focused,’ Newlin said.
Search and rescue teams leave the command post at St. Mary’s Wilderness en route to the Blue Ridge Parkway to search for the site where a Cessna Citation crashed
In a statement from the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, Hefner is referred to as a ‘defender of his fellow pilots’ safety, careers, and family.’
The NTSB said investigators plan to conclude its on-scene investigative work Wednesday from the southwest Virginia crash site of the light plane that caused a security scare on Sunday when it flew over heavily restricted airspace near Washington.
Lead investigator Adam Gerhardt told the Post that his team is yet to establish if the plane had voice and data recorders due to the extent of the damage. Gerhardt said that the aircraft was unrecognizable as a plane.
‘This is a rather extreme example of an airplane that impacted terrain. It’s already a challenging process and it makes it that much more challenging for us, but we will be here for as long as it takes,’ Gerhardt said.
The owner of the plane, John Rumpel, believes the plane lost pressurization and has also said that Hefner was in charge of maintaining the aircraft.
He told The Washington Post he had never previously had any problems with the jet or with the pilot, who had been working for him on and off for the last five years.
