Nine killed as private jet crashes in Florida neighborhood

All nine people aboard a private jet died when it crashed into a residential neighborhood in Cresthaven, in Florida's Palm Beach County, on Sunday. The Learjet 60 plunged toward a roadside and exploded, narrowly missing houses. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries among people on the ground.

The aircraft was traveling from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. While flying east at an altitude of 35,000 feet, the pilots reported encountering turbulence, icing and precipitation. They asked to climb an additional 2,000 feet shortly before the plane began its steep descent.

Air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data indicated that the jet initially fell at 10,000 feet per minute. Its descent then accelerated to 20,000 feet per minute and eventually reached as much as 30,000 feet per minute, a speed beyond the aircraft's design limits. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

An audio recording from a Miami air traffic control center, captured by the broadcast service LiveATC, documented increasingly urgent reports from the cockpit. A person aboard the aircraft issued a distress call while reporting a descent of 10,000 feet per minute, then declared an emergency seconds later as that rate doubled. The voice warned that the aircraft would hit the ground and subsequently reported a descent rate of 22,000 feet per minute and a bank angle of 60 degrees. A scream preceded a final statement that time had run out.

Videos shared on social media showed the aircraft's final approach to the ground. Recorded by people inside vehicles, the footage captured a loud rushing sound as the jet descended rapidly, struck beside a road and burst into a large fireball. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis likened the plunge to “a missile going down.” Black and gray smoke rose near the surrounding homes, while fire continued burning around a crater left on the road.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the crash happened at 12:50 p.m. local time and called it a “horrific tragedy.” The identities of the nine people aboard had not been immediately established. The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation into the incident.

Authorities also began moving residents out of the affected area. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores told a press briefing that approximately 600 people were being evacuated and taken to two shelters.