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Nine dead as Learjet nosedives into Florida neighbourhood

Pilot called icing manageable minutes before a 30,000-feet-per-minute dive that exceeded the jet's design limits, crash landed feet from homes and inches from passing cars

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Law enforcement respond to a plane crash in Palm Beach county, Florida, on Sunday. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/Reuters Law enforcement respond to a plane crash in Palm Beach county, Florida, on Sunday. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/Reuters theguardian.com
Police closed the road after a Learjet 60 believed to be carrying nine people crashed in a residential area in Palm Beach county, Florida. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/Reuters Police closed the road after a Learjet 60 believed to be carrying nine people crashed in a residential area in Palm Beach county, Florida. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/Reuters theguardian.com
Dashcam footage shows moment business jet crashes into Florida neighbourhood – video Dashcam footage shows moment business jet crashes into Florida neighbourhood – video theguardian.com
People stand near a crater formed after a Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach county, Florida, in this still image obtained from a social media video. Photograph: Vanessa Lara/Reuters People stand near a crater formed after a Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach county, Florida, in this still image obtained from a social media video. Photograph: Vanessa Lara/Reuters theguardian.com
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had launched an investigation into the ‌crash. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/Reuters The National Transportation Safety Board said it had launched an investigation into the ‌crash. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/Reuters theguardian.com

All nine people aboard a business jet died when it crashed into a South Florida neighbourhood on Sunday, erupting into a fireball beside a busy Palm Beach County roadway. The aircraft, a Bombardier-built Learjet 60, came down at about 12.50pm, feet from homes and — by the account of people at the scene — inches from passing vehicles. Florida governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed.

The jet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, bound for the Bahamas. At 35,000 feet its pilots reported light clear ice and moderate turbulence jolting the aircraft by as much as 700 feet, calling the ice manageable and requesting a further 2,000 feet of altitude. Minutes later the aircraft was in a dive. Air traffic control recordings capture a mayday call at 10,000 feet per minute of descent, then a report of an "overspeed condition" at 20,000 feet per minute. Flightradar24's tracking data showed the vertical descent rate at one point exceeding 32,000 feet per minute — speeds that, by the recordings and the tracking data, took the jet beyond its design limits. The last captured transmission: "We're going to crash into the ground."

Dashcam video from cars on the road shows the aircraft plunging before the explosion; flames afterwards flickered around chunks of pavement torn up in the crater, under thick black smoke. The jet had banked sharply right before impact. DeSantis, at the scene, called it "a cataclysmic plane crash" that "looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road." Transportation secretary Sean Duffy called the crash a "horrific tragedy" and said the Federal Aviation Administration was sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the cause. Rain had pounded the region through the day.

Who was aboard remains unstated. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for the airport, confirmed a private aircraft but gave no details on its occupants. FAA records list the jet's owner only as a Delaware corporation. The NTSB team will now work back from a roadside crater to establish how ice a pilot called manageable minutes earlier ended in a descent faster than the airframe was built to survive.