A private jet bound for the Bahamas fell almost straight down onto a commercial street in South Florida on Sunday, and none of the nine people aboard survived. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that everyone on board had died and asked people to pray for the families.
The aircraft, a Bombardier Learjet 60, had taken off from Austin, Texas, with North Eleuthera as its destination. Shortly before 1 p.m. local time it slammed into Military Trail, a wide commercial artery with shops and eateries near the Cresthaven neighbourhood of Palm Beach County. Dashcam footage shared online shows the jet dropping out of the sky nose-first and erupting in flames on impact, leaving a smoking crater and debris scattered over a wide area.
Governor Ron DeSantis said the scene looked as if “a missile” had come down. Remarkably, officials knew of no one on the ground who had been hurt. Still, about 600 residents of a nearby mobile home park had to be moved out for the night, water mains were damaged, and authorities expect the road to stay closed for a month or more.
Radio exchanges released after the crash offer a first glimpse of what went wrong. At first the cockpit reported some icing and bumpy air but sounded calm, requesting a higher altitude. Within about two minutes a mayday followed, as the jet was said to be sinking first 10,000 and then twice that many feet each minute. Thunderstorms were moving across the region at the time, and a flood watch covered much of southern Florida.
The NTSB is in charge of the inquiry with help from the FAA. Records show the jet belongs to a Delaware-registered company, and the victims had not been publicly named by Monday morning. Bombardier offered condolences but declined to speculate on a cause. The impact site is only around nine miles from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s estate; the president had left the area aboard his official plane roughly sixty minutes before the crash.
