Jet Falls 26,500 Feet in One Minute, Killing Nine in Palm Beach County Crash

Nine people died on Sunday afternoon when a private Learjet 60 business jet plummeted from the sky and smashed into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida. The crash occurred near Military Trail, leaving a crater in the pavement and sending debris into nearby homes. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described the event as a horrific tragedy on social media, confirming that all individuals aboard the aircraft were killed.

The Federal Aviation Administration placed the time of the crash at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The jet had departed from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was heading toward North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. According to flight tracking data, the aircraft was traveling at an altitude of roughly 35,000 feet when it began to descend rapidly. The plane dropped from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in a single minute just before impact, a vertical drop of 26,500 feet.

Air traffic control recordings reveal a frantic final exchange between the pilots and the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center. Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported light clear ice that was manageable, along with moderate turbulence. The outside air temperature was recorded at minus 47 degrees Celsius. The pilot noted that the turbulence was bouncing the jet by as much as 700 feet. After the pilots reported precipitation and asked to climb 2,000 feet, the situation changed fast. The pilot radioed, "We're descending 8,000, mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute." The pilot later reported an overspeed condition with a descent rate of 20,000 feet per minute, and then said, "We're going to crash into the ground." The descent rate eventually reached 30,000 feet per minute. The aircraft banked sharply to the right before hitting the ground at a steep angle.

Witnesses in Greenacres, a city of about 45,000 people located roughly seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach, described the moment of impact. Anthony Blackmon, who was about 500 feet from the crash, said debris hit his house and the road was on fire. Another person who saw the aftermath said it looked like a meteor hit the ground. Roger Forcelle felt the aircraft pass over his home, which shook the entire structure. He estimated the crash occurred less than half a mile from his residence. Andrew Mannino heard a loud boom and felt the power go out immediately. He smelled smoke and saw a large black cloud rise into the air. Video recorded by people in nearby cars captured the jet striking near the roadway and exploding. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater, which was located only feet from homes and inches from passing vehicles. Thick black smoke covered the site, and the road buckled where the jet hit it.

Palm Beach County officials responded quickly to the scene. Sheriff's officials placed the crash site between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. The debris field stretched a long distance from the point of impact. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the site and told reporters that the plane looked like a missile going down. He stated that there were no reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured at the time of his news conference. DeSantis praised the quick response of first responders in the area. The crash site is about four miles south of the airport in West Palm Beach, which was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport earlier this year. CNN reported that President Trump was in West Palm Beach earlier on Sunday and left the airport on Air Force One a little more than an hour before the crash.

About 600 people in a nearby mobile home community had to leave their homes on Sunday night. County officials stated that the crash scene blocks the entrance to the mobile home park and is being treated as a crime scene while federal investigators work. No official has alleged that a crime took place. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores, who was the first county official at the scene, said residents were being sent to two county shelters. The Red Cross was standing by, and Palm Tran buses were ready to carry residents once law enforcement allowed the evacuation. Officials closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive until further notice. The road is open only to emergency vehicles. Drivers were directed 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 stay closed for an extended time because of the crater, and officials said the timeline also depends on the federal investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation and launched a go-team Sunday. Investigators were expected to arrive Sunday and Monday morning, with a media briefing planned in West Palm Beach on Monday. No cause has been determined yet. Officials have not released the names of the nine people killed or said how many were passengers and how many were crew. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was a private aircraft. He noted that the airport could not say who was on the flight. The jet is registered as N722BD and is listed in FAA registry data as a Learjet 60 owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. The jet is listed online as available for charter flights, but officials have not said who operated Sunday's flight. FAA rules require multi-engine jets to carry a cockpit voice recorder only when they are flown for hire. It is not known whether the jet carried such a recorder. Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst, said a flight recorder could have been destroyed in the explosion.

Weather conditions at the time of the crash included scattered storms in the area. CNN reported that the jet passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before it began to descend. The flight was in an area where the FAA had issued a convective SIGMET, which is a warning of thunderstorms that threaten aircraft. Whether the weather played a part 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 the descent was not controlled and that the pilots had lost control of the plane. She noted that the steep dive could have torn parts off the plane.

The crash is the deadliest ever involving a Learjet 60, according to Flight Safety Foundation data. In 2008, four people were killed when a Learjet 60 bound for Los Angeles crashed on takeoff in Columbia, South Carolina. NTSB records show this is the second deadliest crash in the United States this year. The first was a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12 people. Learjet is a brand that Bill Lear's Lear 23 made famous with wealthy travelers in the 1960s. The aircraft was most recently built by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, which stopped making new Learjets in 2021 but still supports the planes in service.