Source : the age
West Palm Beach: A business jet carrying nine people has nosedived into a South Florida neighbourhood, erupting into a giant fireball that appeared to just miss homes and a busy roadway.
Everyone on board was killed, the US transportation secretary said.
Dashcam footage captured the terrifying moment the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunged from the sky before hitting the ground beside a road and exploding.
Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as people milled about, expressing shock that it landed so close to houses and metres from passing vehicles. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County at 12.50 pm (3.50am Monday, AEST) and called it a “horrific tragedy”.
The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, he said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters at the scene. “It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
Rain pounded the region on Sunday. A flood watch due to excessive rainfall was in effect until Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
The aircraft had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities did not immediately say what caused the jet to go down or who was on it.
The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (10,668 metres) when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb 2000 feet.
“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net.
But the situation rapidly deteriorated and the pilot declared an emergency as the aircraft began losing altitude at an alarming rate.
“We’re descending 8000 – mayday, mayday – we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgement of what was about to happen.
“We’re going to crash into the ground.”
The plane’s steep dive, first at 10,000 feet (3048 metres) per minute, then 20,000 feet (6096 metres) per minute, and up to 30,000 feet (9144 metres) per minute, pushed it beyond its design limits, according to air traffic control recordings and flight-tracking data.
The plane banked sharply to the right before it plunged into the ground.
Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the jet was a private aircraft. He could not immediately say who was on the flight.
Palm Beach County authorities are evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while federal officials investigate the crash. The road will be closed until further notice, county officials said.
West Palm Beach is about 12 kilometres from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
