All nine people aboard the Learjet 60 died after the aircraft plunged into a six-lane road in Palm Beach County; no casualties were reported on the ground
A private jet crashed into a residential neighbourhood in Florida on Sunday, killing all nine people aboard, in an incident that occurred about nine miles (14km) from Mar-a-Lago, US President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach County.
The Learjet 60 aircraft crashed on Military Trail, a six-lane road near Cresthaven, at approximately 12:50 local time (17:50 GMT), creating a massive fireball and scattering aircraft debris across the roadway.
The US Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, confirmed the fatalities, describing the incident as a “horrific tragedy”. The identities of those aboard the aircraft have not yet been established publicly.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aircraft departed Austin, Texas, and was travelling to the Bahamas when it crashed. Preliminary flight-tracking analysis indicates that the jet experienced a rapid descent shortly before impact, raising questions about the circumstances surrounding the accident.
Air traffic control recordings captured a crew member reporting moderate turbulence and efforts to manage ice accumulation on the aircraft, the pilot subsequently reported that the aircraft was picking up precipitation and that the crew needed to climb.
Moments later, the cockpit recording captured increasingly alarming communications, with the crew reporting a descent rate of 10,000 feet per minute before declaring an emergency.
In the final exchanges, a crew member reportedly warned that the aircraft was descending at 20,000 feet per minute, saying they were about to crash. The last recorded remark from the cockpit was: “We’re out of time.”
