[Video] Follow-Up: NTSB Says Florida Learjet Began Breaking Up Before Impact as Final-Minutes Timeline Is Released
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) held its first media briefing on the Florida Learjet 60 crash on November 2 in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida. Board Member Tom Chapman said investigators have evidence that the aircraft began breaking up before it hit the ground, though which parts came off and why is not yet clear. The jet crashed on November 1 near a residential area in Greenacres, Palm Beach County; all nine people on board, two crew members and seven passengers, were killed.
Chapman laid out the timeline of the flight's final phase at the briefing: the plane left Austin at 10:37 a.m. ET on November 1 bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas; at 12:47 p.m., the crew told controllers they were picking up light, clear ice that was manageable, and reported moderate turbulence, an outside temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius, and altitude deviations of about 700 feet; the crew then reported flying into precipitation and asked to climb to 37,000 feet, which controllers approved; shortly after, at about 12:48 p.m., the crew reported they were descending and made a Mayday call, then reported an overspeed condition and called out their altitude as the jet fell rapidly; at about 12:50 p.m., the plane crashed beside Military Trail near Greenacres.
Investigator-in-charge Tim Monville said debris was scattered across an area about half a mile by four-tenths of a mile, landing on ball fields and at people's homes, and that parts of the aircraft may be found some distance from the impact site; the NTSB asked anyone who finds debris not to touch or move it and to contact authorities. The crater the plane left in the roadway is partially filled with water, and recovering the main wreckage from it will be a major challenge. Chapman also said the aircraft's records show it had a cockpit voice recorder at some point, but investigators do not yet know whether one was still on board.
Monville said the weather at the time is a major focus of the investigation, and that investigators need to establish who knew what, and when, about the weather among the crew and air traffic control. Chapman said the board will not determine a probable cause while on scene and will not speculate; the cause of the crash has not been determined.
The briefing also updated the ground toll: Monville said a man driving away from the area next to the crash site suffered a leg injury, and investigators planned to interview him on Monday; no one on the ground was killed. Officials had said on Sunday that there were no immediate reports of ground injuries. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office said on November 2 that the nine people on board had not yet been identified, and that identification is up to local authorities. The co-pilot's family has confirmed to multiple news outlets that she was Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, of the Boca Raton area; her mother said she earned her pilot's license at 17 and had logged more than 1,300 flight hours. The names of the captain and the seven passengers have not been released.
Investigators will spend the coming days documenting the wreckage, then move it to a secure facility for closer examination, and will review the aircraft's maintenance records, both pilots' training and experience, and the full air traffic control recordings. The investigation is ongoing.
Related: Florida Learjet 60 Crashes Into Residential Area, All Nine Aboard Killed
(Source: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board)
Source: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 一架Learjet 60公务机（资料图，非涉事飞机）。Raimond Spekking摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / A Learjet 60 business jet (file photo, not the accident aircraft). Photo by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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