Florida Learjet that killed nine began breaking up in mid-air before it crashed, US air accident investigators say
Dashcam footage of the Learjet 60's impact near West Palm Beach, as Transport Secretary Sean Duffy called the crash "a horrific tragedy.A radar image posted on X shows the thunderstorm over Palm Beach County that the Learjet 60 flew into before nosediving, with the aircraft having departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas bound for the Bahamas.Footage posted on X shows what a witness described as looking nothing like a plane as the jet fell, the aircraft having plunged 34,000 feet in under a minute at a 60-degree bank angle.The crash left a crater in Military Trail, igniting a utility pole and scattering burning debris feet from passing cars and nearby homes in Greenacres, Palm Beach County.
Co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, texted her pilot boyfriend seconds before the Learjet 60 plummeted 27,000 feet in under a minute, writing: 'I've got turbulence, I've got ice.' The Palm Beach County native, who earned her licence at 17 and had logged over 1,300 flying hours, was among all nine killed when the jet nosedived into a road in Greenacres, leaving a deep crater that severed a water main below.
Investigators say ice was 'certainly a factor' and a fast-growing thunderstorm — its clouds shooting up 15,000 feet in just 20 minutes — is a 'major focus.'
The $2 million jet had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, bound for the Bahamas, when the mayday call came — Filgueiras heard panicked on the final cockpit audio.
