Palm Beach County Learjet Kills All Nine Aboard After Steep Plunge

The jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute, the FAA said, before slamming into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida, killing all nine people on board. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the fatalities on Sunday, November 1, 2026. The FAA stated the Learjet 60 crashed at approximately 12:50 p.m. Eastern time. The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was en route to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. The FAA described its initial data as preliminary.

Duffy called the incident a "horrific tragedy" on the social platform X. He announced that the FAA was dispatching a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board investigation. Duffy asked the public to pray for the families of the victims. The NTSB launched a go-team and planned a media briefing in West Palm Beach on Monday. No cause had been determined as of Sunday.

Officials had not released the names of the deceased or the breakdown of passengers versus crew. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was private. He stated he could not identify the individuals on the flight. Reynolds described the event as "definitely a tragedy."

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office placed the crash site near Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. The location is in Greenacres, a city of roughly 45,000 residents about seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach. The site lies about four miles south of the West Palm Beach airport, which was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport earlier this year. President Trump was in West Palm Beach earlier Sunday and departed on Air Force One more than an hour before the crash.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the scene and described the event to reporters. He said it "looked like a missile going down" and left a large crater beside the road. DeSantis noted there were no initial reports of ground casualties. He stated the debris field stretched a long distance and praised local first responders.

Video from nearby vehicles captured the jet falling, striking near the road, and exploding. Flames surrounded pavement chunks lining the crater, which was feet from homes and inches from traffic. Thick black smoke covered the site. WPBF footage showed the road buckled where the jet impacted. Anthony Blackmon, a resident about 500 feet away, said 6 that debris hit his house and the road caught fire. Roger Forcelle said he felt the aircraft pass over his home and cause shaking. Andrew Mannino said he heard a boom, lost power, and smelled smoke. A witness described the aftermath as looking like a meteor strike.

About 600 residents in a nearby mobile home community had to leave their homes on Sunday night. County officials said the site is being treated as a crime scene while federal investigators work, but no official has alleged that a crime took place. The crash scene blocked the entrance to the mobile home park. Commissioner Joel Flores, who represented District 3, said residents were being sent to two county shelters. He stated, "So we have about 600 people that we have to make sure that they have shelter tonight." The Red Cross stood by, and Palm Tran buses were ready to transport residents once law enforcement approved the move.

Palm Beach County closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive until further notice. Emergency vehicles retained access. The county directed drivers to use 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive for east-west travel. Haverhill Road and Kirk Road served as north-south detours. A commissioner warned the road could remain closed for an extended period due to the crater. Officials said the timeline depends on the federal investigation.

Flight data showed the jet flying east at about 35,000 feet when pilots reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation. They requested a climb of 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 reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius. Turbulence bounced the jet by up to 700 feet, according to recordings from LiveATC.net.

The descent accelerated rapidly after the precipitation report. The pilot radioed: "We're descending 8,000, mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute." The pilot then reported an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute. The pilot stated: "We're going to crash into the ground." CBS News reported the pilot also said, "We're out of time." The descent rate peaked at 30,000 feet per minute, exceeding design limits. The plane banked sharply right before hitting the ground at a steep angle. The FAA said the jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute. ADS-B Exchange showed the drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before data cut off, CNN reported.

Scattered storms were present in the area, and the jet passed through a stronger storm cell minutes before descending, CNN reported. The flight was in an area where the FAA had issued a convective SIGMET warning of thunderstorms. Whether weather played a role has not been determined. Heavy rain fell across the region on Sunday. The National Weather Service maintained a flood watch through Monday afternoon. In January 2024, the NTSB issued a safety alert on in-flight icing, warning that ice can make managing flightpath and airspeed more difficult.

Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, said dashcam video would be important to investigators. She stated: "That is not a controlled descent." She added that the steep dive could have torn parts off the plane and that a flight recorder could have been destroyed. It is unknown if the jet carried a cockpit voice recorder. FAA rules require multi-engine jets to carry one only when flown for hire; records show the jet was offered for charter flights.

Flight tracking and FAA registry data identify the jet by registration N722BD. The FAA registry lists it as a Learjet 60 owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware. CNN reported the jet is listed online as available for charter. Officials have not identified who operated the Sunday flight. The crash is the deadliest ever involving a Learjet 60, according to Flight Safety Foundation data. In 2008, four people died when a Learjet 60 crashed on takeoff in Columbia, South Carolina. NTSB records show this is the second deadliest U.S. Crash this year, after a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12. Bombardier, the Canadian manufacturer that stopped making new Learjets in 2021, still supports the planes in service.