A Learjet crashed on Sunday afternoon in a residential area in Palm Beach County, Florida, killing all nine people on board, US transportation officials said.
The private jet had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
Videos on social media showed the jet slamming into the ground next to a road and exploding.
“It was a big-time tragedy that happened,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference near the crash site in Lake Worth Beach.
“When you see that video, it’s a jarring thing. It was like a missile coming down, and a massive explosion, debris going everywhere.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had launched an investigation into the crash, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called a “horrific tragedy”.
FAA records list the Bombardier-made Learjet 60’s owner as a Delaware corporation. Canada-based Bombardier said it would fully support the investigation and cooperate as needed.
The crash left a “massive crater” by the road near the entrance to a mobile home park, Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said at the news conference. About 600 people were being evacuated from the area and relocated to two shelters in the county, Flores said.
Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms were occurring in the area at the time, forecaster AccuWeather said in a statement.
An audio recording from a Miami air traffic control centre posted on LiveATC, a site that broadcasts air traffic control communications, captured the plane’s final moments before the crash in unusual detail.
At first, someone in the plane’s cockpit reported to an air traffic controller that they were “managing the ice” but faced “moderate” turbulence and were seeking “better rides”.
Less than a minute later, the person said “Mayday, mayday”, reporting that the plane was suddenly descending at a rate of 10,000 feet per minute.
Seconds later, the person said they were declaring an emergency, with the rate of descent accelerating to 20,000 feet per minute.
Less than 20 seconds later, the person said: “We’re going to crash into the ground” before saying that the descent rate had reached 22,000 feet per minute as the plane started banking.
About 35 seconds after the initial mayday announcement, the last thing heard from the cockpit was a rapidly spoken “We’re out of time”.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said data showed the vertical descent rate at one point exceeded 32,000 feet per minute.
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