West
Palm Beach: A business jet crashed in a residential neighbourhood in Florida on
Sunday, killing all nine people on board, US Transportation Secretary Sean
Duffy said. The crash happened near Cresthaven, about nine miles (14 km) from
Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's resort in Palm Beach County, around 12:50
EST (17:50 GMT).
Images
from after the crash showed a crater in the middle of a residential road, with
patches of fire and pieces of concrete and debris from the Learjet 60 scattered
around. The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft had departed from
Austin, Texas, and was headed to the Bahamas. US media reports and flight
analysis indicated the jet was plummeting hundreds of feet per second before
impact.
In
air traffic control audio recorded moments before the crash, the pilot said the
plane was descending 10,000 feet per minute before declaring an emergency and
reporting an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute. "We're
gonna crash ... We're out of time," the pilot told the tower, according to
CBS News. Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show the
aircraft nosediving almost vertically into the ground and exploding into a
fireball.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured, but 600 residents were being evacuated from a nearby trailer-park community. The crash caused considerable damage to local infrastructure, including water lines, and officials said it would be at least 30 days before the road reopened. Duffy described the crash as a "horrific tragedy" and said the FAA was sending a team to help a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.
