Investigators Say the Florida Learjet Began Breaking Up Before Impact, as a Minute-by-Minute Timeline Emerges
The NTSB said Monday there is evidence the jet came apart before it hit the ground near Greenacres; the crew's last transmission came about a minute after their first mayday.
Federal investigators said Monday that there is evidence the Learjet 60 that crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday began breaking up before it hit the ground, USA TODAY reported. National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman told a news conference on Nov. 2 that investigators are still working to determine exactly what happened to the aircraft, which nosedived into a neighborhood near Greenacres, leaving a burning crater and a wide debris field. All nine people on board were killed; no one on the ground was reported injured.
A minute-by-minute reconstruction built from Flightradar24 data and Miami Center air traffic control audio archived by LiveATC shows how fast the emergency unfolded. The jet left Austin, Texas, at about 10:37 a.m. Sunday, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. At about 12:47 p.m., flying at roughly 35,000 feet, the crew reported light, manageable ice and moderate turbulence, with an outside temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius, and then asked to climb to 37,000 feet as they flew into precipitation and a fast-building thunderstorm.
About 30 seconds after being cleared to climb, at 12:48 p.m., the crew declared a mayday and reported descending at 10,000 feet per minute. Seconds later they reported an overspeed condition at 20,000 feet per minute, then a descent of 22,000 feet per minute with the aircraft banking 60 degrees. Their last transmission came at about 12:49 p.m., and the aircraft crashed at about 12:50 p.m. Flight data at one point showed a descent rate above 32,000 feet per minute.
The BBC's Verify team has also used the air traffic control audio and flight tracking data to reconstruct the flight's final moments. The cause of the crash remains unknown, and the victims had not been publicly identified in the reporting read Monday. This station first reported the crash on Sunday (SQ-20261101-055); Monday's file is the investigation's first full day, and the desk will follow the NTSB's findings as they are released.
