Learjet Kills Nine After Nose-Diving Into Palm Beach County Neighborhood

A Learjet 60 business jet crashed into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday, killing all nine people aboard. The aircraft struck the ground near Military Trail and exploded near a busy road. The crash occurred at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The jet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas with a destination of North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the fatalities in a post on the social media platform X, describing the event as a horrific tragedy. He stated that the FAA was dispatching a team to the scene to assist the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. The NTSB launched a go-team on Sunday and planned a media briefing in West Palm Beach for Monday. No cause for the crash had been determined as of the initial reports. Officials had not yet released the names of the nine victims or distinguished between crew members and passengers.

Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, identified the aircraft as a private jet. He said he could not say who was on the flight and called the incident "definitely a tragedy." The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office located the crash site in Greenacres, a city of approximately 45,000 residents. The site is near Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. This location is roughly seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach and about four miles south of the local airport, which was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport earlier in the year.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the scene and provided a preliminary assessment to reporters. He described the impact as a cataclysmic event, noting that the jet appeared to fall like a missile and left a large crater beside the road. DeSantis reported that no one on the ground had been killed or injured at the time of his news conference. He praised the rapid response of local first responders and noted that the debris field extended over a long distance. Video footage from nearby vehicles captured the jet plunging from the sky, striking the area near the roadway, and erupting in flames. Thick black smoke obscured the site, and flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater. The road surface buckled where the jet made impact.

Residents in the immediate vicinity reported feeling the force of the impact. Anthony Blackmon, who was about 500 feet from the crash, said debris struck his house and that the road was on fire. He stated that he had never imagined such an event happening so close to his home. Roger Forcelle described feeling the aircraft pass over his property, which shook his entire house. He said everybody came out of their houses because they could feel the shaking. Andrew Mannino reported hearing a loud boom and feeling the impact, which caused an immediate power outage in the area. He smelled smoke and saw a large black cloud rise into the air. Another witness described the aftermath as resembling a meteor strike. A woman working nearby reported that electricity had remained off for approximately two hours.

About 600 people in a mobile home community near the crash site had to leave their homes Sunday night, county officials said. The crash scene blocks the entrance to the park and is being treated as a crime scene while federal investigators examine the area. No official has alleged that a crime occurred. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores, who represents District 3 and was the first county official on scene, said residents were being moved to two county shelters. He stated that the Red Cross was on standby and that Palm Tran buses were prepared to transport residents once law enforcement granted permission for the evacuation.

Palm Beach County closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive until further notice. The road remained open only to emergency vehicles. County officials directed drivers to use 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive for east-west travel and Haverhill Road and Kirk Road for north-south travel. A county commissioner warned that parts of the road could remain closed for an extended period because of the crater. The timeline also depends on the federal investigation.

According to air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data, the jet was flying east at an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation. The crew requested permission to climb 2,000 feet. Minutes before the crash, the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center that they were experiencing light, clear ice that was manageable, along with moderate turbulence. The pilot also reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius. The turbulence was causing the jet to bounce by as much as 700 feet, according to the recording captured by LiveATC.net.

After the pilots reported precipitation and requested a climb, the situation deteriorated rapidly. The pilot radioed: "We're descending 8,000, mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute." The pilot subsequently announced that the jet was in an overspeed condition, descending at 20,000 feet per minute. The pilot then said, "We're going to crash into the ground." CBS News reported that the pilot also stated, "We're out of time." The descent rate increased to as high as 30,000 feet per minute, pushing the jet beyond its design limits. The aircraft banked sharply to the right before hitting the ground at a steep angle, the AP reported.

The FAA stated that the jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute just before the crash. Flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange showed a drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before the data signal cut off. Scattered storms were present in the area, and the jet passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before it began to descend, CNN reported. The flight was in an area where the FAA had issued a convective SIGMET, a warning of thunderstorms that threaten aircraft. Whether the weather played a role in the crash has not been determined. Heavy rain fell across the region on Sunday, and the National Weather Service had a flood watch in effect through Monday afternoon. In January 2024, the NTSB issued a safety alert on in-flight icing, warning that ice can make managing the airplane's flightpath and airspeed more difficult and can prevent the airplane from maintaining level flight.

Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, said dashcam video will be important to investigators. She stated, "That is not a controlled descent." She added: "So at that point, it's clear whatever happened, they had lost control of the plane." Schiavo noted that the steep dive could have torn parts off the aircraft and that a flight recorder could have been destroyed in the explosion. It is not known whether the jet carried a cockpit voice recorder. FAA rules require multi-engine jets to carry one only when they are flown for hire; records show the jet was offered for charter flights.

Flight tracking and FAA registry data identify the jet by its registration, N722BD. The FAA registry lists the aircraft as a Learjet 60 owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. CNN reported that the jet is listed online as available for charter. Officials have not yet said who operated the flight on Sunday. According to Flight Safety Foundation data, the crash is the deadliest ever involving a Learjet 60. In 2008, four people were killed when a Learjet 60 bound for Los Angeles crashed on takeoff in Columbia, South Carolina. NTSB records show it is the second deadliest crash in the United States this year, following a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12 people. Learjet, the brand that Bill Lear's Lear 23 made famous with wealthy travelers in the 1960s, was most recently built by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier. The company stopped making new Learjets in 2021 but still supports the planes in service.