Investigators Probe the Palm Beach County Learjet Crash That Killed Nine; the Dead Still Unidentified Monday
A Learjet 60 bound from Austin to the Bahamas fell from the sky onto Military Trail in Palm Beach County on Sunday, killing all nine people on board. The NTSB briefs reporters Monday afternoon, the medical examiner is still working to identify the dead, and about 600 residents near the crash site need shelter.
Federal investigators are working to determine what brought a Learjet 60 down onto a busy Palm Beach County roadway on Sunday, in the second deadliest plane crash in the United States this year. The jet, traveling from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, crashed at about 12:50 p.m. near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North, in an unincorporated area between Greenacres and Palm Springs, the Federal Aviation Administration said. All nine people on board were killed; officials reported no injuries on the ground.
The descent, captured on passing vehicles' cameras, was nearly vertical. Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft falling 27,000 feet in about a minute before the data cut off, according to ADS-B Exchange. Governor Ron DeSantis, speaking near the scene on Sunday, called it a 'cataclysmic plane crash.' 'It looked like a missile going down,' he said, describing a massive explosion and debris strewn across the area. Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms were occurring in the area at the time, AccuWeather reported; officials have not identified a cause, and the National Transportation Safety Board scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. Monday.
The work of naming the dead is still underway. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office said Monday that it had not yet identified the nine people on board as of late morning. On the ground, County Commissioner Joel Flores said about 600 people were in need of shelter because damage from the crash is blocking the entrance of a mobile home park near the site. The crash is the deadliest involving a Learjet 60 on record, according to Flight Safety Foundation data, and investigators are expected to be at the scene for days.
