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Dashcam footage captures Florida private jet crash
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it will investigate whether parts of a jet that crashed in Florida broke off before it nose-dived and exploded, killing all nine people on board.
The Learjet 60, which was travelling from Austin, Texas to the Bahamas on Sunday, crashed on a street nine miles (14 km) from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
A tech entrepreneur and his young family, as well as the 20-year-old copilot, were among those who died.
The NTSB said on Monday that it would also investigate to what extent ice and turbulence may have been contributing factors.
Final moments before deadly Florida plane crash
It confirmed that, after the jet took off from Austin, the crew transmitted to air traffic control that they were encountering ice and moderate turbulence.
"We are picking up precipitation, requesting to climb to 37,000 feet if able," the crew said.
NTSB member Tom Chapman said that less than 30 seconds later, the plane began to descend and the crew issued a mayday call.
The transmission then became "unintelligible", he said, adding that: "Sadly, all aboard were lost."
The NTSB said that ice and turbulence were factors in the crash but that determining its probable cause will be a "lengthy investigatory process".
Thunderstorms had been reported in the area at the time.
Officials are also trying to find out whether a cockpit voice recorder was on board at the time of the crash and if it can be recovered.
As part of the investigation, the NTSB is working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), representatives from Learjet as well as meteorologists and air traffic control experts.
Recovering the wreckage from the crater on the roadway will be a "daunting challenge", said Timothy Monville, an air safety investigator with the safety board.
Officials describe how Learjet flight unfolded before deadly crash
Flight analysis indicates the jet was plummeting hundreds of feet per second before crashing.
In air traffic control audio, a crew member can be heard declaring an emergency, shouting "we are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000ft per minute", before saying, "we are going to crash into the ground".
About 35 seconds after the initial mayday announcement, the last remark from the cockpit appears to be "we're out of time".
The seven people killed who were travelling as passengers were identified in a joint statement from their families as tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, and their two children - Emma and Charlie - as well as Rachael Reed, Charmi Fehr and Anita Maria Cetina.
The pilot was named in media reports as Jeffery Gregory, while Nathalia Filgueiras, who earned her pilot's licence when she was 17, was reported to be the copilot.
As well as those killed, one man on the ground sustained a leg injury when the plane nosedived onto the street.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said the crash happened on Military Trail, a six-lane road lined with businesses and restaurants.
Images from the crash scene show a large fiery crater in the middle of a residential suburban street.
The debris was scattered across sports fields, businesses and homes in the area, officials told a news conference on Monday, possible evidence that the plane broke up before it hit the ground.
Unverified footage posted on social media shows what appears to be a dash-camera recording of the moment of the crash.
Trump was at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday morning, and departed from an airport nearby on Air Force One about an hour before the crash.
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Parts of a business jet appear to have broken off before the aircraft crashed in South Florida and erupted into a ball of flames, killing all nine people on board, a federal investigator said Monday.
Video recorded by passersby captured the terrifying moment on Sunday afternoon when the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunged from the sky before slamming into the ground and exploding in Greenacres, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as shocked residents looked on in horror. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.
“Debris was everywhere. Debris hit my house. Everything was on fire. The road was on fire,” Anthony Blackmon, who lives near the crash site, told NBC affiliate WTVJ. “I’ve always seen it on the news, never thought it would happen so close to somebody like how it happened today.”
National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman said during a news conference Monday that the aircraft appeared to start breaking up before it made impact and that he expects parts of the plane will be found far away.
“We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact,” Chapman said. “We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site.”
Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel G. Flores said at the news conference that the county “doesn’t have a clue” when residents living around crash site will be able to return to home.
There were around 77 mobile homes in the area and residents of those homes have been evacuated to a shelter, Flores said.
“Our concern right now is clearing the scene so that our residents can get back to normal,” Flores said. “We don’t really have a timeline as to when they are going to be able to comb through all the evidence and do everything they need to do, and that leaves our community looking for answers.
The Bahamas-bound jet began its journey at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. Airport spokesperson Jim Reynolds described it as a private aircraft. Authorities have not released the names of the people who died.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office declined to discuss the death investigation, saying it is still in early stages.
One of the pilots of the plane has been identified by her stepfather as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. She earned her pilot's license in 2023 while a 17-year-old senior at West Boca Raton Community High School in Florida, local news reports said at the time.
Her pilot's license showed she had the rating to fly that model of Learjet but not to be in command of the flight.
Her father, Allan Filgueiras, told The Associated Press he wasn’t prepared to speak about the crash.
Palm Beach County Mayor Sara Baxter asked for sympathy for the crash victims.
“Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers,” she said.
The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) when the pilot started to report problems.
The pilot said ice was accumulating on the jet and that turbulence was jolting it by as much as 700 feet (213 meters), according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net. Rain pounded the region on Sunday.
“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers.
The pilot requested permission to climb another 2,000 feet (about 610 meters) and then quickly declared an emergency as the jet lost altitude at an alarming rate.
“We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed. Moments later, the pilot said: “We’re going to crash into the ground.”
Video shows the plane banking sharply to the right before crashing and exploding.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters at the scene. “It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
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