Nine Die As Learjet Hits Palm Beach County Road

All nine people aboard a private Learjet 60 died on Sunday, November 1, when the aircraft struck a residential area in Palm Beach County, Florida. The crash site is located near Military Trail, roughly four miles south of the President Donald J. Trump International Airport in West Palm Beach. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the fatalities in a social media post, calling the event a horrific tragedy.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported the jet crashed at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was heading to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. The FAA said nine people were on board and called its information preliminary.

Air traffic control recordings detail a rapid deterioration in the minutes before impact. The pilots reported light, clear ice and moderate turbulence while flying at approximately 35,000 feet. The outside air temperature was recorded at minus 47 degrees Celsius. The pilot noted that turbulence was bouncing the jet by as much as 700 feet.

The descent began abruptly after the crew reported precipitation and asked to climb. The pilot radioed a mayday and reported a descent rate of 10,000 feet per minute. The pilot then updated the rate to 20,000 feet per minute and stated the aircraft was in an overspeed condition. The pilot told controllers, "We're going to crash into the ground." CBS News reported the pilot also said, "We're out of time."

Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange shows the jet dropped 27,000 feet in about one minute before the signal was lost. The FAA said the aircraft fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in that final minute. The plane banked sharply to the right and hit the ground at a steep angle, exceeding its design limits for descent rate.

The impact created a crater near the roadway, with flames flickering around chunks of pavement. One person who saw the aftermath said it looked like a meteor hit the ground. Anthony Blackmon, a resident living about 500 feet from the crash, said debris hit his house and the road was on fire. Roger Forcelle said the aircraft passed over his home, shaking the structure before crashing probably less than half a mile from where he lives.

Andrew Mannino told CNN he heard and felt the boom, and the power immediately went out in the area. He described seeing a large black cloud rise into the air. A woman working nearby reported that electricity had been out for about two hours . The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office identified the specific location as Greenacres, a city of about 45,000 people.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the scene and described the crash as cataclysmic. He told reporters it looked like a missile going down and noted the large crater formed on the side of the road. DeSantis said there were no reports of ground casualties at the time of his news conference and praised local first responders for their quick response.

About 600 residents of a nearby mobile home community were forced to leave their homes on Sunday night. The crash scene blocks the entrance to the park and is being treated as a crime scene for federal investigators. County Commissioner Joel Flores said residents were being sent to two county shelters, with Red Cross aid standing by. Palm Tran buses were positioned to transport residents once law enforcement authorized the move.

Palm Beach County closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive until further notice. The road is open only to emergency vehicles. The county advised 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 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 on Sunday. Investigators were expected to arrive Sunday and Monday morning, with a media briefing scheduled for Monday in West Palm Beach. No cause has been determined yet. The NTSB issued a safety alert on in-flight icing in January 2024, warning that ice can make managing the airplane's flightpath more difficult.

Mary Schiavo, a former Transportation Department inspector general and aviation analyst for CNN, said dashcam video will be important to investigators. She noted that the descent was not controlled, indicating the crew had lost control of the plane. She suggested the steep dive could have torn parts off the aircraft and that a flight recorder might have been destroyed in the explosion. FAA rules require multi-engine jets to carry a cockpit voice recorder only when flown for hire. Records show this jet was available for charter flights.

The aircraft is registered as N722BD and is owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. Flight Safety Foundation data indicates this is the deadliest crash ever involving a Learjet 60. The previous worst incident involved a Learjet 60 in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2008, which killed four people. This crash is the second deadliest in the United States this year, following a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12 people.

The Learjet brand was made famous by Bill Lear in the 1960s and was last manufactured by Bombardier, which stopped building new Learjets in 2021. Bombardier continues to support the planes in service. Officials have not released the names of the nine people killed or specified 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 and could not identify the individuals on the flight.