NTSB opens investigation after Learjet 60 kills all nine in Palm Beach County crash

All nine people aboard a Learjet 60 business jet were killed on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the aircraft descended rapidly and struck a neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida. The jet was traveling from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera, Bahamas, when it crashed near a busy roadway around 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described the incident as a horrific tragedy in a post on social media.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation and said Sunday it was launching a go-team. Investigators are expected to arrive Sunday and Monday morning, and the NTSB plans a media briefing in West Palm Beach on Monday. No cause for the crash has been determined yet. The FAA called its information preliminary.

Officials have not yet released the names of the victims or specified how many were passengers and how many were crew. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the aircraft was private and could not say who was on the flight. He described the event as definitely a tragedy.

The crash site is located near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North in Greenacres. The city has a population of approximately 45,000 and lies roughly seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach. The impact point is about four miles south of the airport in West Palm Beach, which was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport earlier this year. CNN reported that President Trump departed the airport on Air Force One more than an hour before the crash occurred.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the scene and told reporters the crash was cataclysmic. He said the aircraft looked like a missile as it descended and left a large crater beside the road. DeSantis stated there were no reports of injuries or deaths among people on the ground at the time of his press conference. He noted that debris was scattered over a large area and praised local first responders.

Video from nearby cars captured the jet falling from the sky and exploding near the pavement. Flames were visible around chunks of road that formed the crater, which was located very close to homes and passing vehicles. Thick black smoke covered the site, and footage from WPBF showed the road surface buckled where the jet struck.

Anthony Blackmon, a resident about 500 feet from the crash, said debris hit his house and the road was on fire. Roger Forcelle reported feeling the aircraft pass overhead, which shook his home before it crashed probably less than half a mile away. Andrew Mannino said he heard and felt the boom and the power immediately went out. He described seeing a large black cloud rise into the air. Another witness said the scene looked like a meteor had hit the ground. A woman working nearby reported the electricity had been out for about two hours.

About 600 people in a nearby mobile home community had to leave their homes Sunday night, county officials said. The crash site blocks the entrance to the mobile home park and is being treated as a crime scene for federal investigators. No crime has been alleged. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores, who represents District 3 and was the first county official on scene, said residents were being moved to two county shelters. He said the Red Cross was standing by, and county officials said Palm Tran buses were ready to carry residents once law enforcement allowed the evacuation.

Palm Beach County closed Military Trail between 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive to all traffic except emergency vehicles. Drivers were instructed to use 10th Avenue North and Purdy Lane/Alameda Drive for east-west travel and Haverhill Road and Kirk Road for north-south travel. A county commissioner warned the road could remain closed for an extended period because of the crater, and officials said the timeline also depends on the federal investigation.

Air traffic control recordings show the jet was flying east at 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing, and precipitation. They requested to climb 2,000 feet. Minutes before the crash, the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center that they had light, clear ice and moderate turbulence. The pilot also reported an outside air temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius and turbulence causing the jet to bounce by up to 700 feet.

After the initial reports, the pilot radioed that the aircraft was descending 8,000, then declared a mayday and stated they were descending 10,000 feet per minute. The pilot later reported an overspeed condition with a descent rate of 20,000 feet per minute. According to CBS News, the pilot also said, "We're out of time.". Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange showed a drop of 27,000 feet in about a minute before the signal was lost. The FAA said the jet fell from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute.

The jet banked sharply to the right before hitting the ground at a steep angle. Scattered storms were in the area, and the aircraft passed through a stronger storm cell shortly before the descent began. The FAA had issued a convective SIGMET warning of thunderstorms that threaten aircraft. The NTSB issued a safety alert on in-flight icing in January 2024, noting 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 the descent was not controlled, indicating the pilots had lost control of the plane. She noted that the steep dive could have torn parts off the aircraft and that the flight recorder might have been destroyed in the explosion. It is not known if the jet carried a cockpit voice recorder, as FAA rules require it only for jets flown for hire. The jet, registered as N722BD, is owned by LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware, and was listed online as available for charter. This is the deadliest crash ever involving a Learjet 60, according to Flight Safety Foundation data. It is the second deadliest crash in the United States this year, following a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, in June that killed 12 people. Bombardier, the Canadian manufacturer that most recently built the Learjet, stopped making new models in 2021 but still supports existing planes.