{"id":902665,"date":"2026-11-02T00:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T00:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/902665\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T00:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T00:18:34","slug":"nine-people-dead-in-learjet-crash-in-south-florida-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/902665\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine people dead in Learjet crash in south Florida, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"

US officials say a small private jet has crashed into a southern Florida neighbourhood killing all nine people aboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Learjet 60 erupted into a giant fireball when it crashed near a busy road at 12:50pm on Sunday, local time.<\/p>\n

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement on X: “Today’s plane crash in Palm Beach County, is a horrific tragedy.”<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/p>\n

The crash left a flaming crater in the ground. (Supplied: Eduin Cruz\/via Reuters)<\/p>\n

The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was heading to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n

Authorities did not immediately say what caused the crash or who was on board.<\/p>\n

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the crash left a crater in the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed, he said.<\/p>\n

“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” Mr DeSantis told reporters at the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”<\/p>\n

Storms had been reported in the area, and it was raining heavily as the news conference was held.<\/p>\n

The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (about 11 kilometres) when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb 2,000 feet (about 610 metres).<\/p>\n

Moments later, the plane entered a steep dive, first 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding the plane beyond its design limits, according to air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data.<\/p>\n

A pilot declared an emergency and issued distress calls. The plane banked sharply to the right before it crashed steeply into the ground.<\/p>\n

Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was jolting it by as much as 700 feet, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net.<\/p>\n

“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers.<\/p>\n

But the situation rapidly deteriorated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After encountering precipitation and requesting to climb, the pilot declared an emergency as the aircraft began losing altitude at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/p>\n

The circumstances of the crash remain under investigation. (AP: Mark Elias)<\/p>\n

“We’re descending 8,000 \u2014 mayday, mayday \u2014 we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.<\/p>\n

“We are in an over-speed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to crash into the ground.”<\/p>\n

Video from cars captured the moment the aircraft plunged from the sky before striking near the road and exploding.<\/p>\n

Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.<\/p>\n

Palm Beach County authorities are evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while federal officials investigate the crash.<\/p>\n

ABC\/wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US officials say a small private jet has crashed into a southern Florida neighbourhood killing all nine people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,177144,15441,32970,35845,130054,2808,377936,3,37652,3778,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-902665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-business-jet","tag-crash","tag-fatal","tag-fatality","tag-fireball","tag-florida","tag-learjet","tag-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-plane-crash","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}