NTSB says Learjet may have broken up before Florida crash

Federal investigators said Monday they have preliminary indications that the Learjet 60 that crashed into a Palm Beach County street on Sunday, killing all nine people aboard, had begun breaking apart before it struck the ground.

National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman set out the finding at a news conference Monday, where he said weather conditions are a major focus of the inquiry. The crew had reported icing and moderate turbulence at about 35,000 feet shortly before the jet went down. No cause has been established.

What the crew reported

The aircraft left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at about 10:37 a.m. Eastern time Sunday for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, with two crew members and seven passengers aboard, according to the NTSB. Flightradar24 data show it had flown into Austin from Little Rock, Arkansas, the day before, and that it climbed to about 41,000 feet on Sunday before descending to 35,000 feet near Naples.

At approximately 12:47 p.m., the crew told controllers they were encountering light clear ice they considered manageable, along with moderate turbulence. The jet was at 35,000 feet, with altitude deviations of roughly 700 feet and an outside air temperature of minus 53 degrees Fahrenheit.

The crew then reported precipitation and asked to climb to 37,000 feet, and less than 30 seconds after controllers approved the request, a transmission from the aircraft announced a descent, and a mayday call followed.

Air traffic control audio posted on LiveATC captured the pilot reporting a descent of 10,000 feet per minute, then telling controllers the jet was in an overspeed condition and descending at 20,000 feet per minute, International Business Times reported. Provisional tracking data showed the descent rate passing 30,000 feet per minute. Controllers could not re-establish contact.

Indications of a breakup

Debris from the jet covers an area of roughly half a mile by four-tenths of a mile, investigators said, with pieces found around ball fields and at nearby businesses and homes. One person on the ground was hurt, suffering a leg injury while in a vehicle leaving the area next to the crash site. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had said Sunday that nobody on the ground was reported killed or injured.

Chapman cautioned that the investigation is in its early stages and that much remains undetermined. The NTSB asked anyone who comes across aircraft debris not to move it, and asked witnesses with photographs or video to contact investigators at witness@ntsb.gov.

About 20 NTSB investigators began arriving in Palm Beach County on Sunday evening, with specialists in aircraft systems and structures, recorders, weather, air traffic control, and a drone pilot among the team.

We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact. ... We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site.

Investigators are trying to establish whether a cockpit voice recorder was aboard. Maintenance records indicate one had been installed, but the NTSB has not confirmed it remained on the aircraft. Water that collected in the crater after heavy rainfall is complicating access to the main wreckage, which NTSB Investigator-in-Charge Timothy Monville said would be difficult to recover.

The scene on Military Trail

The jet struck Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, in a residential area of Palm Beach County near Cresthaven. The FAA put the time of impact at about 12:50 p.m.; the NTSB's preliminary timeline gives approximately 12:51 p.m. Dashcam video from a passing car shows the aircraft descending almost vertically before it hit the road and exploded.

DeSantis called the crash cataclysmic and told reporters the plane "looked like a missile going down." He said it left a big crater on the side of the road and scattered debris over a wide area. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who confirmed Sunday that all nine aboard were dead, called the crash a horrific tragedy and said the FAA was sending a team to support the NTSB.

About 600 residents of a mobile home park beside the crash site were moved to two county shelters, Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said. The jet came down at the entrance to the park, which Flores described as a crime scene, so residents could not stay. The Red Cross provided initial services.

A local school closed Monday, and the crash damaged power lines and water mains; local officials have said reopening the stretch of Military Trail where the jet came down will take a month or more.

Who was on board

The passengers included Austin-based technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two children, four-year-old Emma and two-year-old Charlie, according to a joint statement released by their families on Monday. Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were also aboard, along with the children's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina.

CBS News identified the crew as 55-year-old pilot Jeffrey Gregory and 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who had earned her pilot's license at 17, before she obtained a driver's license. Filgueiras graduated from high school in Boca Raton in 2024. Her mother, Camila Corteleti, said of her: "She loved the freedom. It was completely different seeing the world from the top."

Who owned the jet

The aircraft, tail number N722BD, is registered to LR60271 LLC, a Delaware company whose name matches the jet's model and serial number, 60-271, according to FAA records reviewed by International Business Times. The registry names no individual behind the company. Its address, 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington, is the Corporation Trust Center, the home of registered agent CT Corporation.

The registration certificate was issued on Jan. 4, 2023, and runs to Jan. 31, 2030. The registry lists the jet as an 11-seat twin-turbofan, and an archived Aircraft.com sales listing dates the airframe to 2004. Valuation service Virtual Hangar put its worth at $2,429,464 as of Aug. 29.

Charter rules and the operator

Operator data derived from FAA records list N722BD on the Part 135 charter certificate of Aurora Aviation, Inc., meaning the jet could be flown for hire, International Business Times reported. The certificate is overseen by the FAA's Miami Flight Standards District Office and covers four aircraft, two Learjet 60s, a Learjet 60XR and a Dassault Falcon 50.

Part 135 flights are held to stricter rules on maintenance, crew rest and pilot qualifications than private flights, and the NTSB has described Sunday's trip as a Part 135 operation. An Austin-Bergstrom International Airport spokesperson described the jet as a private aircraft. Public NTSB records show no earlier accident involving the tail number.

The site lies less than seven miles from Mar-a-Lago and about four miles south of President Donald J. Trump International Airport, which took that name in July. Trump boarded Air Force One there at 11:55 a.m., less than an hour before the jet went down. A White House official had said he would hold back-to-back campaign rallies in Kansas and Iowa that day.

Claims that circulated on social media saying the jet had been shot down have no official support, International Business Times reported.

Where the inquiry stands

A CNN review of NTSB records ranks the crash the second-deadliest in the United States this year, behind a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12. CNN also cited Flight Safety Foundation data showing it is the deadliest accident involving a Learjet 60, the midsize business jet Bombardier's Learjet division developed from the Learjet 55 and put into service in 1993.

Investigators will examine the aircraft's maintenance history, engine performance, flight-control systems, weather and recorded flight data. The NTSB has not confirmed whether the jet flew through an active thunderstorm, and its work at the scene is expected to run for several days. The cause has not been established.