By DAVID FISCHER and JOHN FUNK<\/p>\n
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Parts of a business jet likely started to break off even before it slammed into the ground and erupted in a ball of flames<\/a> in South Florida, killing all nine people on board, a federal investigator said Monday.<\/p>\n Video recorded by passersby captured the Bahamas-bound Learjet\u2019s rapid nosedive Sunday afternoon before it exploded in Greenacres, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as shocked residents looked on in horror. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site and little remained of the plane. <\/p>\n \u201cDebris was everywhere. Debris hit my house. Everything was on fire. The road was on fire,\u201d Anthony Blackmon, who lives near the crash site, told NBC affiliate WTVJ. \u201cI\u2019ve always seen it on the news, never thought it would happen so close to somebody like how it happened today.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal investigators outline the probe but decline to speculate<\/p>\n National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman said during a news conference Monday that investigators found evidence the aircraft started breaking up before it hit the ground and that debris from the aircraft could be spread far and wide.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cWe may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site.\u201d<\/p>\n Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said key components of the jet\u2019s tail may have been lost during the turbulence or as it nose-dived.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that happens you cannot control an airplane at that point. And that very well could explain the missile-like profile just before it hit the ground,\u201d said Guzzetti, a former NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration investigator.<\/p>\n Weather conditions will be a major focus of the investigation, Chapman said. Rain pounded the region on Sunday, and one of the pilots reported icing conditions at a high altitude in communications with air traffic control. <\/p>\n Weather radar maps from the time of the crash that FlightRadar24 combined with the plane\u2019s flight path seem to show it flying directly into a storm cell that was rapidly expanding upward. But Chapman said investigators still have to determine what the weather conditions were at 35,000 feet.<\/p>\n Chapman said the plane was originally equipped with a cockpit voice recorder that investigators hope to recover.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of work to do on scene,\u201d NTSB investigator Timothy Monville said at the news conference. \u201cThis will be a several-day process, and the biggest obstacle that we\u2019re going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway.\u201d<\/p>\n Mother identifies one of the pilots<\/p>\n The jet began its journey at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas with two crew and seven passengers, Chapman said. Authorities have not released the names of the people who died and the Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to discuss the death investigation, which is ongoing.<\/p>\n Camila Corteleti told the New York Post and New York Times that her daughter, 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, was one of the pilots. She earned her pilot\u2019s license in 2023 while a 17-year-old senior at West Boca Raton Community High School in Florida, local news reports said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her pilot\u2019s license showed she had the rating to fly that model of Learjet but not to be in command of the flight.<\/p>\n Her father, Allan Filgueiras, told The Associated Press he wasn\u2019t prepared to speak about the crash.<\/p>\n A man who was driving close to the scene as the plane crashed suffered leg wounds, Monville said, but he didn\u2019t know the extent of the injury.<\/p>\n Palm Beach County Mayor Sara Baxter asked for sympathy for the crash victims.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease keep them in your thoughts and prayers,\u201d Baxter said.<\/p>\n Pilot reported turbulence and ice, then the jet fell rapidly<\/p>\n The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) when the pilot started to report problems.<\/p>\n