Pieces of crashed Learjet found miles from Florida site

Summarised from 5 outlets · Updated 3 Nov, 22:16 · Archive

The tail of a Learjet that crashed in Florida on Sunday, killing nine people, has been found in pieces up to 3.8 miles from the impact site.

A Learjet 60 crashed in Greenacres, near West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday whilst travelling from Austin, Texas to the Bahamas. All nine people on board were killed. The victims have been identified as pilot Jeffrey Gregory, 55; co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20; entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 44; his wife Helen Sharp, 40; their children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2; their nanny Anita Maria Cetina; and family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.

The aircraft crashed into a street, creating a large crater and erupting in flames. The impact was severe enough to scatter wreckage across a wide area. On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board announced that investigators had recovered pieces of the jet's left elevator – a control surface on the tail – located between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the crash site.

NTSB member Tom Chapman said at a news conference that the elevator was broken into three pieces. The distance of these pieces from the impact site indicates they separated from the aircraft before it struck the ground, rather than scattering on impact.

Chapman explained that the left elevator controls the pitch of the aircraft – its up-and-down movement. The loss of this component is significant to the investigation, though its role in the crash remains unclear. Chapman said investigators are still determining whether losing the elevator caused the plane to nosedive, or whether the separation was caused by the extreme forces acting on the aircraft during descent.

According to radio transmissions from co-pilot Filgueiras, the jet encountered a thunderstorm whilst at 35,000 feet, which caused icing on the aircraft and severe turbulence. The plane initially climbed to 37,000 feet after requesting clearance, then began to descend sharply. In her final transmissions, Filgueiras reported the aircraft was descending at increasingly rapid rates, eventually reaching 20,000 feet per minute before impact.

Chapman noted that the elevator would likely not have been effective in halting the descent even if it remained attached to the aircraft, given the extreme speed. The plane crashed on Sunday into the ground near a trailer park at the intersection of Military Trail and Cresthaven Boulevard in Palm Beach. The Daily Mail reports the crash site was about eight miles from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club, but states that investigators have determined the crash is not connected to the no-fly zone around that location.

Stormy weather in Florida on Sunday remains a key focus of the investigation. Chapman said that storms passing through Florida on Monday had hampered investigation efforts, but investigators spent Tuesday collecting and documenting evidence from the scene.

How it is being reported

• Pieces of Learjet found miles away from Florida crash as chilling theory emergesNine people were killed when a Learjet 60 crashed in Greenacres, Florida, on Sunday - the private jet was en route from Austin to the Bahamas when it went downThe Mirror · 3 Nov, 22:00
• NTSB says crucial plane parts found three miles from Florida crash siteThe NTSB said because the parts were found far from the accident site, they fell off before the crash.BBC World · 3 Nov, 21:53
• Investigators say they found tail pieces of Learjet that crashed in Florida, killing nineNational Transportation Safety Board says discovery of parts confirms plane was breaking apart before it crashed Investigators looking into the fatal crash of a Learjet in Florida have said they found pieces of the horizontal tail section more than a mile from where the aircraft made impact, killing all nine aboard and leaving a fiery crater in the ground. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Tom Chapman said during a news conference on Tuesday that the discovery of tail parts broken into three pieces confirms the plane was breaking apart before it hit the ground. Continue…The Guardian · 3 Nov, 21:31
• Tail of doomed Florida Learjet is recovered miles from crash site... as investigators say disaster had nothing to do with Mar-a-Lago defense systemsThe tail of the doomed Learjet that nosedived into a street in Greenacres, Florida, near West Palm Beach, was recovered miles away from the crash site, investigators have revealed.Daily Mail · 3 Nov, 21:26
• ‘Important pieces’ of doomed Learjet separated before crash that killed 9: officialsImportant pieces from the tail of the doomed Learjet that crashed Sunday in Florida, killing all 9 people on board, had already separated from the aircraft before it hit the ground, investigators said.New York Post · 3 Nov, 20:28

In this story: Learjet · Adam Robinson · Helen Sharp · Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras · Jeffrey Gregory · National Transportation Safety Board · Florida · West Palm Beach

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem · Corrections log