Sean Duffy said all nine people aboard a Learjet 60 died after Avion Palm Beach crashed Sunday in a residential area of Palm Beach County, Florida. He called the crash a "terrible tragédie" after the aircraft went down at 12h50 heure locale.
The FAA said the private jet had left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was bound for the Bahamas. The agency said it would investigate the accident with the NTSB, after the aircraft exploded on impact and left an enormous crater in the roadway.
Sean Duffy on X
Duffy posted the death toll on X, giving the first official public count from the federal government. His statement put the focus on the scale of the loss before investigators began sorting out how the flight ended in a residential area.
The crash site was about 10 km from Mar-a-Lago, according to the local sheriff's office. Donald Trump was en route to Iowa and Kansas when the accident happened, placing the crash in a part of Palm Beach County tied to a high-profile residential area and a roadway near homes.
FAA and NTSB inquiry
The combined FAA and NTSB investigation is the next step after the wreckage is secured and the scene is documented. The aircraft's departure from Austin-Bergstrom and its planned flight to the Bahamas give investigators a route to reconstruct, but the cause of the crash has not yet been determined from the facts available here.
Videos circulating on X made the impact look like a missile strike, but the crash was an airplane accident in Palm Beach County. For residents near the site, the immediate issue is the federal investigation now centered on what happened in those final moments before the Learjet 60 went down.
Palm Beach County scene
The scale of the destruction was visible in the roadway crater and the post-impact explosion. What caused the Learjet 60 to crash in Palm Beach County is the question investigators now have to answer.
