Learjet Kills Nine in Palm Beach County After Steep Descent

A Learjet 60 business jet nose-dived into a neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday, November 1, 2026, and exploded near a busy road. All nine people aboard the aircraft were killed, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. Sheriff's officials placed the crash in Greenacres.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the jet crashed at about 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The jet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was bound for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. Duffy called the crash a "horrific tragedy" in a post on X.

Key points from the investigation and immediate response include the following: The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the inquiry. The NTSB said Sunday it was launching a go-team, and investigators were expected to arrive Sunday and Monday morning. The agency has not yet determined a cause for the crash but plans to hold a media briefing in West Palm Beach on Monday. Secretary Duffy stated on social media that the FAA is sending a team to support the NTSB's efforts.

About 600 people in a nearby mobile home community had to leave their homes Sunday night, county officials said. The crash site blocks the entrance to the park and is being treated as a crime scene while federal investigators work. No official has alleged that a crime took place. County Commissioner Joel Flores, who represents District 3 and was the first county official at the scene, 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.

Military Trail was closed between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive until further notice. The road was open only to emergency vehicles. County officials directed drivers 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 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.

Air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data reported by the AP offer details of the final minutes of the flight. The jet was flying east at about 35,000 feet when 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: "We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence." The pilot also reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius and turbulence that bounced 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 stated the aircraft was in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute. The pilot then said, "We're going to crash into the ground," and reportedly added, "We're out of time," according to CBS News. The descent rate went from 10,000 feet per minute to 20,000 and then as high as 30,000 feet per minute, pushing 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.

Flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange showed a drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before the data cut off, CNN reported. The FAA stated the jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute. Scattered storms were 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, a warning of thunderstorms that threaten aircraft, for the region. Whether the weather contributed to the crash has not been determined.

Witnesses described a violent impact. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited the scene and told reporters the crash looked like a missile going down. He noted that the jet left a big crater on the side of the road and that there were no initial reports of people on the ground being killed or injured. Debris stretched a long distance from the impact point. Nearby resident Anthony Blackmon, who told NBC 6 he was about 500 feet from the crash, said debris hit his house and everything was on fire. Roger Forcelle felt the aircraft pass over his home, shaking the structure, before it crashed less than half a mile away. Andrew Mannino told CNN he heard and felt the boom, the power immediately went out and was still out, and he smelled smoke and saw a large black cloud rise into the air. A woman working nearby said the electricity had been out for about two hours.

Video recorded by people in nearby cars captured the jet plunging, 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. Thick black smoke covered the site, and the road buckled where the jet hit it. One witness said the scene looked like a meteor had hit the ground.

The aircraft was registered as N722BD and identified as a Learjet 60 owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. The jet is listed online as available for charter flights. Officials have not released the names of the nine victims or the specific breakdown of passengers and crew. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was a private aircraft. He could not say who was on the flight. FAA rules require multi-engine jets to carry a cockpit voice recorder only when they are flown for hire, and records show the jet was offered for charter flights. It is not known if the jet carried one.

Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, stated that the descent was not controlled. She said it was clear the pilots had lost control of the plane. The steep dive could have torn parts off the aircraft, and a flight recorder could have been destroyed in the explosion. In January 2024, the NTSB issued a safety alert on in-flight icing, warning that ice can make managing flightpath and airspeed difficult and prevent level flight.

This is the deadliest crash involving a Learjet 60, according to Flight Safety Foundation data. The previous deadliest incident involved a Learjet 60 crashing on takeoff in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2008, killing four people. 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. Learjet, the brand associated with wealthy travelers in the 1960s, was most recently built by Bombardier, which stopped making new models in 2021 but still supports planes in service.