Pilot Said Mayday, Then Nine Died in Greenacres Jet Crash

All nine people on board a Learjet 60 died Sunday when the aircraft crashed into a residential area in Palm Beach County, Florida. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the jet nose-dived into a neighborhood and exploded near a busy road. The Federal Aviation Administration reported the impact occurred at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time.

The plane had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas with a destination of North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. The FAA said nine people were on board and called its information preliminary. Officials had not released the names of the nine people killed or said how many were passengers and how many were crew.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation. The agency said Sunday it was launching a go-team, and investigators were expected to arrive Sunday and Monday morning. A media briefing is scheduled for Monday in West Palm Beach. No cause for the crash has been determined at this time.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the scene and described the event as a cataclysmic plane crash. He stated the aircraft looked like a missile going down and left a large crater on the side of the road. DeSantis said there were no reports at the time of his news conference of anyone on the ground being killed or injured. He noted the debris field stretched a long distance.

Video footage from nearby cars captured the jet striking the ground near the roadway. The impact created a crater lined with chunks of pavement, located feet from homes and inches from passing vehicles. Thick black smoke covered the site as flames flickered around the chunks of pavement. Footage showed the road surface buckled where the jet hit.

Anthony Blackmon, a resident about 500 feet from the crash, told NBC 6 that debris hit his house and the road was on fire. Roger Forcelle said he felt the aircraft pass over his home, shaking the structure before it crashed probably less than half a mile away. Andrew Mannino told CNN he heard the boom, lost power immediately, and saw a large black cloud rise into the air.

About 600 people in a nearby mobile home community 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 work. No official has alleged that a crime took place. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said residents were being sent to two county shelters. The Red Cross was standing by, and Palm Tran buses were ready to transport residents once law enforcement allowed the evacuation.

Palm Beach County closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive until further notice. Only emergency vehicles were permitted through. The county 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 stay closed for an extended time because of the crater, and officials said the timeline also depends on the federal investigation.

Air traffic control recordings showed the jet flying east at about 35,000 feet when pilots reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation. The crew requested a climb of 2,000 feet. Minutes before the crash, the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center that they had light, clear ice that was manageable and moderate turbulence. The pilot also reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius and turbulence bouncing the jet by up to 700 feet.

After the pilots reported precipitation and asked to climb, the pilot radioed: "We're descending 8,000, mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute." The pilot then reported an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute. The pilot then said: "We're going to crash into the ground." The descent rate reached as high as 30,000 feet per minute, pushing the jet beyond its design limits before it banked sharply right and hit the ground at a steep angle.

The FAA stated the jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute just before the crash. Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange showed a drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before the signal cut off. Scattered storms were in the area, and the jet passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before the descent began. The FAA had issued a convective SIGMET warning of thunderstorms threatening aircraft in that area.

The aircraft is registered as N722BD, a Learjet 60 owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. CNN reported the jet is listed online as available for charter flights. Officials have not identified who operated Sunday's flight. Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, said the steep dive indicated the pilots had lost control of the plane. She noted that a flight recorder could have been destroyed in the explosion.

According to Flight Safety Foundation data, this is the deadliest crash involving a Learjet 60. In 2008, four people died when a Learjet 60 crashed on takeoff in Columbia, South Carolina. NTSB records show this is the second deadliest crash in the United States this year, following a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12. Bombardier, the Canadian manufacturer, stopped building new Learjets in 2021 but continues to support the planes in service.