Pilot Radioed Mayday Before Jet Fell

Sunday afternoon, a private business jet nose-dived into a neighborhood in Palm Beach County and exploded near a busy road.

All nine people on board the Learjet 60 died in the crash, which occurred at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The aircraft was traveling from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas when it crashed. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy labeled the event a "horrific tragedy" in a post on X, noting that the Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation.

The jet descended from an altitude of 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in a single minute, according to the FAA. Flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange showed a drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before the data cut off, CNN reported. Air traffic control recordings show the pilots initially reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation while requesting a climb of 2,000 feet. Soon after, the pilot radioed mayday and said the aircraft was descending at 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute.

The pilot radioed that the plane was in an overspeed condition and that they were "going to crash into the ground." CBS News reported that the pilot also said, "We're out of time." The descent rate reached as high as 30,000 feet per minute, pushing the aircraft beyond its design limits, the AP reported. The plane banked sharply to the right before impacting the ground at a steep angle near Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North in Greenacres.

Greenacres is a city of approximately 45,000 residents located about seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach. The crash site is about four miles south of the airport in West Palm Beach, which was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport earlier this year. CNN reported that President Trump departed the airport on Air Force One more than an hour before the crash. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the site and described the impact as looking like a "missile going down," noting it left a large crater on the side of the road.

DeSantis said there were no reports of people on the ground being killed or injured at the time of the news conference, though the debris field stretched a long distance. Video recorded by people in nearby cars captured the jet striking near the roadway and exploding, the AP reported. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater, which was feet from homes and inches from passing vehicles. WPBF video showed the road buckling where the jet hit.

Resident Anthony Blackmon, who was about 500 feet from the crash, said 6 that debris hit his house and that everything was on fire. Another resident, Roger Forcelle, said the aircraft passed over his home, shaking the structure before crashing probably less than half a mile away. Andrew Mannino said that he heard and felt the boom, and that the power immediately went out. A woman working nearby reported that the electricity had been out for about two hours by the time of the report.

County officials said the scene is being treated as a crime scene while federal investigators work, though no official has alleged that a crime took place. Approximately 600 residents had to leave their homes Sunday night because the crash site blocked the park's entrance. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores, who was the first county official at the scene, said residents were being moved to two county shelters, and the Red Cross was standing by. Palm Tran buses were prepared to transport residents once law enforcement cleared the way.

The county closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive to all traffic except emergency vehicles. Drivers were directed to use 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive for east-west travel and Haverhill Road and Kirk Road for north-south travel. A commissioner warned that the road could remain closed for an extended period due to the crater and the ongoing federal investigation.

Whether weather played a part has not been determined, though 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 warning of thunderstorms in the area. In January 2024, the NTSB issued a safety alert noting that in-flight icing can make managing flightpath and airspeed difficult. The NTSB launched a go-team to the scene, with investigators expected to arrive Sunday and Monday morning. A media briefing was scheduled for Monday in West Palm Beach.

The aircraft, registered as N722BD, is owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. It was listed online as available for charter, though officials had not yet identified the operator of the Sunday flight. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was a private aircraft and could not say who was on the flight. Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former transportation inspector general, stated that the steep dive was not a controlled descent, indicating the pilots had lost control. She said the steep dive could have torn parts off the plane and that a flight recorder could have been destroyed in the explosion. It is not known whether the jet carried a cockpit voice recorder, which FAA rules require of multi-engine jets only when they are flown for hire.

This is the deadliest crash in the history of the Learjet 60 model, according to Flight Safety Foundation data. In 2008, four people were killed when a Learjet 60 bound for Los Angeles crashed on takeoff in Columbia, South Carolina. It 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, originally made famous by Bill Lear in the 1960s, is no longer being manufactured, with Canadian company Bombardier ceasing production of new units in 2021 while continuing to support existing fleets.