Florida Learjet crash: all 9 aboard killed as Austin to Bahamas jet falls near homes

All nine people on board a Learjet 60 business jet were killed when it crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, just before 1pm local time on Sunday 1 November (about 11pm Pakistan time). The jet had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was flying to the Bahamas, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said, according to CBS News.

"Learjet" was among the queries trending in Pakistan on Monday morning, with Google Trends showing more than 200 searches in the past day.

What happened near Greenacres

The aircraft came down near homes and a mobile home park in the Cresthaven area, close to Greenacres, west of Palm Beach. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on X that all nine people on board had died.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said nobody on the ground was injured. He described the impact as "like a missile coming down and a massive explosion, debris going everywhere."

Local officials said about 600 people were evacuated from the area. The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office closed all lanes of Military Trail near Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North.

The last radio calls

Air traffic control audio published by LiveATC.net, and reported by CBS News, records the pilot first reporting a descent of 10,000 feet a minute, then declaring an emergency: "We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute." The pilot's last reported words were that the jet was going to crash.

A normal airliner descent is closer to 1,500 to 3,000 feet a minute, so the reported rate was many times that.

Who was on board

Officials had not named the passengers or crew by Monday morning Pakistan time. A spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom airport, Jim Reynolds, said he could not immediately give details of who was on the flight.

The investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sent a "go-team" of investigators, arriving Sunday and Monday. The FAA supplied the flight's departure, destination and crash time. No cause has been given. NTSB normally publishes a preliminary report within about 30 days of an accident, with a final report taking a year or more.

The Learjet 60

The Learjet 60 is a mid-size twin-engine business jet built by Learjet, now part of Bombardier, and is used widely for charter flights in the United States and the Caribbean.

Times in Pakistan

Florida is on Eastern Time, which moved back an hour on 1 November when US daylight saving ended. Pakistan is now 10 hours ahead of Florida and New York, so 1pm in Palm Beach is 11pm PKT. Our time zone note on the US clock change explains the new gap, and the currency converter handles dollar amounts in rupees.