Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has confirmed that all nine people aboard the Learjet 60 that crashed into a Palm Beach County neighborhood on Sunday were killed. Duffy called the crash a "horrific tragedy," said the Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation, and confirmed the jet's tail number, N722BD. No names have been released, and officials have still not said whether anyone on the ground was hurt.
The business jet came down at about 12:50 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, in a residential area near Cresthaven, by Military Trail and 10th Avenue North, close to the Village of Palm Springs and the city of Greenacres. It had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. The jet hit a mobile home, left a crater at the impact point, and scattered debris and fire across the roadway, into yards and into homes. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue called it a mass casualty incident, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office closed Military Trail in both directions between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North.
Flight-tracking data shows the jet fell out of the sky. At 12:48 p.m. it was at 35,250 feet and still climbing; within moments it was descending at about 20,000 feet a minute, passing 28,950 feet at 505 knots, and a minute later it was at 8,750 feet before it hit the ground in a near-vertical dive, exploding in a fireball. Dash-cam video from the road below caught the dive and the explosion.
The crew's final radio calls have since been reported: minutes before the crash, the flight deck reported light, clear ice at minus 47 degrees and moderate turbulence moving the jet up and down by as much as 700 feet, then called "mayday, mayday" while descending through 8,000 feet at 10,000 feet a minute, reported an overspeed as the descent doubled to 20,000 feet a minute, and radioed "We're gonna crash into the ground" before contact was lost. Investigators have not said whether the ice, the turbulence or the storm played any role.
People nearby saw it happen. One resident, Joseph Deluca, said he heard a loud crash, then saw a huge fireball and debris flying everywhere. Another witness, Marquita Thomas, said, "You can see the smoke from over here," and one resident said a friend watched a plane just falling out of the sky before the explosion. A woman filming at the scene said the aircraft looked to her like a high-speed drone coming down, and that police were telling locals it was a plane that had lost communication with the tower — officials have not confirmed any loss of communication, and what brought the jet down is not yet known.
A second set of videos shows the same dash-cam view of the nosedive and, after it, the crater the jet tore into the street, with small fires still burning around its edges and debris across the road.
The jet was operated by Prime Jet Management. The NTSB will lead the investigation, with the FAA supporting it, and the FAA's team is being sent at Duffy's direction. The weather over the area on Sunday afternoon was overcast, with rain and lightning nearby and east winds of about 15 mph gusting near 25 mph. For the families in the mobile home park and the streets around Military Trail, the day ended with a closed main road, damaged homes and a crater where the jet came down — and, like the nine families of those aboard, they are waiting on investigators for the one answer that matters: why a jet that was climbing normally fell straight out of the sky.
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