Learjet 60 Crashes in Florida, Killing All Nine on Board

A Learjet 60 crashed in a residential area of Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, killing all nine people on board. The aircraft, registration N722BD, had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. It struck the ground near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North around 12:50 p.m. local time, roughly 14 km from Mar-a-Lago.

Air traffic control recordings captured the final minutes. The crew reported managing icing and moderate turbulence and requested a climb. Shortly after clearance, the pilot reported a descent of 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute, and an overspeed condition. The last transmission included the words "we're out of time." Flight-tracking data showed a vertical rate that at one point exceeded 30,000 feet per minute before the near-vertical impact.

The crash left a large crater beside the road, scattered debris, and started fires. No injuries were reported on the ground. About 600 residents from a nearby mobile-home community were evacuated while investigators worked the site. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the impact as looking like a missile. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the nine fatalities and called the event a horrific tragedy. The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation; the FAA is supporting it.

The 2004-vintage aircraft is registered to a Delaware limited-liability company. Bombardier, the manufacturer, said it would cooperate with the inquiry. Identities of those on board had not been released by Monday. The aircraft was en route when the rapid descent began; investigators will examine weather, icing, systems and pilot inputs. The final radio calls and the extreme descent rate give investigators a detailed, if incomplete, timeline of the last seconds.

The site sits in an unincorporated area between Greenacres and Palm Springs. First responders from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Fire Rescue secured the area quickly. The road remained closed. The absence of ground casualties is one of the few mitigating facts in an otherwise total loss of life aboard the jet. The NTSB's work will determine whether the icing and turbulence reports, the overspeed condition, or another factor drove the loss of control. Until that work is complete, the sequence remains an open investigation into a high-speed, near-vertical impact in a populated corridor.