Learjet 60 Plunges From 35,000 Feet, Killing All Nine Aboard in Palm Beach County Crash

Residents of Greenacres, Florida, were being sent to shelters or waiting for power to return after a private jet nose-dived into a neighborhood near a busy road. The Learjet 60, which carried nine people, crashed near Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The aircraft struck the ground, created a crater, and exploded. All nine individuals on board the plane were killed, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

The crash disrupted travel in the area immediately. Palm Beach County closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive, restricting access to emergency vehicles only. County officials directed drivers to use Haverhill Road and Kirk Road for north-south travel and 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive for east-west 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.

About 600 residents of a nearby mobile home community had to leave their homes Sunday night. The crash scene blocks the entrance to the park and is being treated as a crime scene while federal investigators work, county officials said. No official has alleged that a crime took place. Joel Flores, the Palm Beach County Commissioner for District 3, said residents were being sent to two county shelters. He said the Red Cross was standing by, and county officials said Palm Tran buses were ready to carry residents once law enforcement allowed the evacuation.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described the event as a "horrific tragedy" in a post on X. He confirmed that the FAA is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. The NTSB launched a go-team Sunday and expected investigators 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 yet.

Officials have not released the names of the nine victims or the specific breakdown between passengers and crew. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, told the Associated Press that the aircraft was private. He stated that the airport could not identify who was on the flight and called the event a definite tragedy. The jet had departed from Austin, Texas, and was en route to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the scene and spoke to reporters. He described the crash as "cataclysmic" and said it looked like a missile going down. DeSantis noted that the crash left a large crater on the side of the road. At the time of his news conference, he reported no known fatalities or injuries among people on the ground. He praised the quick response of Palm Beach County first responders and noted that the debris field stretched a long distance from the impact point.

Witnesses described a violent sequence of events. Anthony Blackmon, who was about 500 feet from the crash, said debris hit his house and everything was on fire. He noted that he had always seen such crashes on television but never expected one to happen so close to his home. Roger Forcelle reported feeling the aircraft pass over his house, causing it to shake. He estimated the crash occurred less than half a mile from his residence. Andrew Mannino told CNN that he heard and felt a loud boom, and the power in his area went out immediately. He smelled smoke and observed a large black cloud rising into the sky.

Video recorded by people in nearby cars captured the moment of impact. The jet struck near the roadway and exploded, sending flames flickering around chunks of pavement lining the crater. Thick black smoke covered the site, and video from WPBF showed the road buckled where the jet hit it. The crash site was only feet from homes and inches from passing vehicles. One observer said the aftermath looked like a meteor had hit the ground. A woman working nearby reported that the electricity in the area had been out for about two hours by the time she spoke.

Air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data reveal the final moments of the flight. The jet was flying east at about 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation. They requested to climb 2,000 feet. Minutes before the crash, the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center that the aircraft was experiencing light, clear ice that was manageable and moderate turbulence. The pilot reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius and turbulence that was bouncing the jet by as much as 700 feet.

The situation deteriorated rapidly after the pilots reported precipitation. The pilot radioed, "We're descending 8,000, mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute." The pilot then added, "We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute." The pilot said, "We're going to crash into the ground." CBS News reported that the pilot also said, "We're out of time." The descent rate increased from 10,000 feet per minute to 20,000, and then to as high as 30,000 feet per minute. The descent pushed the jet beyond its design limits, and the plane banked sharply to the right before hitting the ground at a steep angle, the AP reported.

The FAA stated that the jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute just before the crash. Flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange showed a drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before the data cut off, CNN reported. Scattered storms were present in the area, and the jet passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before it began to descend, CNN reported. The FAA had issued a convective SIGMET for the region, a warning of thunderstorms that threaten aircraft. Whether the weather played a role in the crash has not been determined. Heavy rain fell across the region Sunday, and the National Weather Service had a flood watch in effect through Monday afternoon.

Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, said dashcam video will be important for investigators. She noted that the descent was not controlled, indicating that the pilots had lost control of the plane. She suggested that the steep dive could have torn parts off the aircraft and that a flight recorder might have been destroyed in the explosion. It is unknown if the jet carried a cockpit voice recorder. FAA rules require multi-engine jets to carry one only when flown for hire, and records show this jet was offered for charter flights.

Flight tracking and FAA registry data identify the aircraft as a Learjet 60 with the registration N722BD. The FAA registry lists the owner as LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. CNN reported the jet is listed online as available for charter. Officials have not identified who operated the flight on Sunday. According to Flight Safety Foundation data, this is the deadliest crash ever 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 people.

The Learjet brand was made famous with wealthy travelers in the 1960s by Bill Lear's Lear 23. Learjet was most recently built by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier. Bombardier stopped making new Learjets in 2021 but continues to support the planes in service.