GREENACRES, Fla. — A business jet fell nearly 26,000 feet in about a minute and slammed nose-first into a roadway in Palm Beach County on Sunday, killing all nine people aboard in one of the deadliest airplane crashes in the United States this year.
The twin-engine Learjet 60 had taken off from Austin, Texas, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. It crashed around 12:50 p.m. near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue, in the Greenacres area, leaving a crater near a shopping center and a fire that residents described as overwhelming. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said everyone on board died.
What the data shows
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the 22-year-old jet dropped from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in a little over a minute, roughly 350 feet per second. Air traffic control recordings and flight-tracking data indicate the plane was flying east at 35,000 feet when the pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and asked to climb another 2,000 feet.
Moments later the aircraft entered a steep dive, with descent rates reported at 10,000, then 20,000 and up to 30,000 feet per minute, well beyond the plane's design limits. It banked sharply to the right before hitting the ground. Dashcam video shared with the video service Storyful appears to show the jet falling nose-down, then exploding on impact.
Investigators have not named a cause, and the data above comes from preliminary FAA and air traffic control information.
Officials and residents react
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it a "cataclysmic" crash and said the aircraft looked like a missile coming down. He told reporters he did not know whether any of the victims were from Florida.
Palm Beach County authorities evacuated about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while federal officials worked at the scene. Residents living close to the site described a terrifying scene; one man who was about 500 feet away said everything was on fire. Military Trail was closed to traffic in the area.
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FAA are investigating. NTSB investigators were expected to reach the site Sunday and Monday. Public records show the jet belonged to a private company and had previously been used as a rental. The victims' names had not been released as of Monday morning.
Other recent airplane crashes
The Florida crash comes after a run of deadly aviation accidents in the past two months:
|
Date |
Event |
Toll |
|---|---|---|
|
Sept. 6, 2026 Related News |
Amazon Air Boeing 767 cargo plane (21 Air Flight 7598) overran a runway at Miami International Airport, hitting a van and an SUV |
5 dead, 5 injured |
|
Mid-Oct. 2026 |
Piper plane crashed near Wisconsin Dells after leaving Kenosha |
6 dead (5 adults, 1 child) |
|
Oct. 23, 2026 |
Two Philippine Air Force SF-260 trainers crashed at Fernando Air Base in Batangas, possibly in a midair collision |
4 pilots dead |
|
Nov. 1, 2026 |
Learjet 60 dive in Greenacres, Florida |
9 dead |
The NTSB is also still working on its investigation of the November 2025 crash of UPS Flight 2976, an MD-11F cargo jet that went down after takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky. That accident killed the three crew members and 11 people on the ground, and the board held an investigative hearing in May.
What happens next
The NTSB typically issues a preliminary report within weeks of a major accident, with a final probable-cause finding taking a year or longer. Investigators will focus on the flight data, cockpit audio, the weather the crew described, the aircraft's maintenance history and its wreckage. Anyone with video or information about the Greenacres crash can contact the NTSB.
