Warning: This article contains content which some readers may find distressing
Yesterday (1 November), a business jet carrying nine people crashed and erupted into a giant fireball.
Hitting the ground in a neighbourhood in Florida, a huge crater was left behind in the middle of a multi-lane road near Cresthaven (not far from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach county).
Footage shows flames on the road and around chunks of pavement where the crater sits as debris from the Learjet 60 aircraft was scattered in the area.
Everyone on board the private small jet was killed, the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said. The crash appeared to just miss homes and no one on the ground was said to be injured or killed.
(AP/PA Images)
Duffy posted on X that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County at 12:50pm local time and called it a ‘horrific tragedy’.
Viral footage on social media shows the huge crater just meters away from people’s homes as the pavement can be seen in chunks broken up with flames.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis said there’s no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” he told reporters at the scene on Sunday.
“It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
Authorities did not immediately say what caused the jet to go down or who was on board.
It was heading east at 35,000ft when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to claim 2,000ft.
Then, according to recordings and flight tracking data, the plane entered a steep dive, first 10,000ft per minute, then 20,000ft per minute and up to 30,000ft per minute, speeding the plane beyond its design limits.
Following the distress calls, the plane blanked sharply to the right before steeply crashing into the ground.
Audio from the jet
In the final moments before the crash, a mayday call was issued by a crew member.
According to air traffic control recordings from LiveATC.com reviewed by CNN, she initially reported on ‘manageable’ ice on the plane and ‘moderate turbulence’, with an outside air temperature of -47C.
But around two hours into the flight from Texas to the Bahamas, the tone changed and she said: “We’re descending 8,000. Mayday, mayday! We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute. Declaring emergency 722 Bravo Delta. We are in an overspeed condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute…We’re going to crash into the ground.”
The pilot then declared: “We are descending 22,000 feet, and we are banking 60 degrees,” before letting out a horrifying scream and chillingly adding: “Look outside. Holy f**k, we’re out of time.”
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