Learjet lost 20,000 feet per minute before Florida crash that killed 9

A business jet carrying nine people crashed in Greenacres, Florida, on Sunday afternoon after losing altitude at a rate of 20,000 feet per minute. The Learjet was heading from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it struck the ground about seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach. The impact created a fireball and left a crater lined with chunks of pavement. National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman said Monday that the aircraft likely started breaking apart before it hit the ground.

Chapman stated that evidence suggests the plane began disintegrating in midair. Jeff Guzzetti, a former investigator for the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration, noted that key components of the jet's tail may have been lost during turbulence or the nose dive. This loss would have made the aircraft impossible to control. He said this failure mode could explain the missile-like trajectory captured on video just before impact.

Rain and icing were major factors in the incident. An FAA warning issued to pilots in the area noted nearly stationary thunderstorms with cloud tops reaching 45,000 feet. The pilot reported icing conditions and turbulence jolting the plane by up to 700 feet. Retired airline pilot John Cox said the combination of turbulence and liquid precipitation freezing at negative 47 degrees Celsius would have been alarming. He noted that precipitation at that altitude and temperature typically comes in the form of ice crystals that flow around the plane.

The pilot radioed air traffic control that the jet had light, clear ice that was manageable and moderate turbulence. The situation deteriorated rapidly. The pilot requested a climb of 2,000 feet and declared an emergency. Radio recordings show the pilot calling out a descent of 8,000 feet per minute, followed by 10,000 feet per minute. The final transmission indicated an overspeed condition descending at 20,000 feet per minute. The pilot said the plane was going to crash into the ground moments before it hit.

Among the nine victims were technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their two young children, and 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. Filgueiras earned her pilot's license in 2023 while attending high school. Her license allowed her to fly that model of Learjet but did not authorize her to command the flight. Her father, Allan Filgueiras, said he was not prepared to speak about the crash. The identity of the other pilot had not been disclosed as of Monday.

Investigators are focusing on weather conditions at 35,000 feet, the altitude where the pilot first reported problems. The plane was originally equipped with a cockpit voice recorder that NTSB investigators hope to recover. Timothy Monville, an NTSB investigator, said the recovery process will take several days. He identified the biggest obstacle as retrieving major wreckage from the crater on the roadway.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel G. Flores said the county did not have a timeline for when residents could return to their homes. A shelter was established for residents of nearly 80 mobile homes near the crash site. Flores said the priority was clearing the scene so the community could return to normal life while investigators searched for debris.

A man driving near the scene suffered leg wounds but did not know the extent of the injury. The crash site was engulfed in thick black smoke, and little of the plane remained intact after the explosion.