The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched investigators, with Federal Aviation Administration personnel assisting at the scene, to determine why the jet went down.
All 9 people aboard a Learjet 60 died when it crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on 1 November 2026, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. The jet had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas for the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. A man in a car on the ground sustained a leg injury.
Investigators had previously said the jet may have broken apart before impact. On 3 November, National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman said recovered pieces of its left elevator established that it had done so. The elevator is a control surface on the tail that moves the aircraft’s nose up and down. Source: BBC.
Chapman said investigators had not established whether the elevator’s separation caused the nosedive or whether forces on the aircraft caused the part to come off. The crash’s probable cause remains undetermined.
The safety board confirmed that the crew had told air traffic control about ice and moderate turbulence. In recordings captured by LiveATC.net, the pilot described the light, clear ice as manageable. Chapman said the jet began descending and the crew issued a mayday call less than 30 seconds after requesting a climb because of precipitation.
In the air traffic control audio, a crew member reported that the aircraft was traveling too fast and descending at 20,000 feet per minute. Miami-based aviation attorney Zachary Gorwitz told the Miami Herald that icing might explain the crash after he reviewed the pilot’s communications; that is his assessment, not an official finding.
Officials said debris was scattered across sports fields, businesses and homes. Lead investigator Tim Monville said recovering the major wreckage from the crater in the road was the biggest obstacle. The safety board said severe storms had partly filled the crater with water.
President Lee Jae Myung’s 2027 plan includes 21.3 trillion won (about $16 billion) for superintelligence (SI) and chip megaprojects, and 4.7 trillion won (about $3.5 billion) for frontier SI development. Parliament must approve the spending.
A November 2 report said county authorities were evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community. County officials said the road would remain closed until further notice.
Investigators will examine what role ice and turbulence played and are trying to establish whether a cockpit voice recorder was aboard and can be recovered. A preliminary report describing what happened is expected in about a month; determining the exact cause will likely take more than a year.
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