Investigators say jet may have broken apart in the air before Florida crash that killed nine

A Bahamas-bound business jet that went down in South Florida on Sunday, killing all nine people on board, shows signs of having come apart before it struck the ground, a federal investigator said Monday, according to the Anchorage Daily News, PBS NewsHour and KOCO 5.

"We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact," Tom Chapman, a member of the NTSB, told reporters Monday, as reported by PBS NewsHour and KOCO 5. He said wreckage could be scattered well beyond the main crash site.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Chapman said the Learjet 60 left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas carrying two crew members and seven passengers. The Anchorage Daily News and KOCO 5 placed the crash in the city of Greenacres, roughly 7 miles southwest of West Palm Beach, while AZFamily described it as a West Palm Beach community. Bystander video showed the plane plunging nose-first and bursting into flames, leaving a crater in a road.

Family members identified the dead as including tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their two small children, and their nanny, Anita Cetina, AZFamily and KOCO 5 reported. Two friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, also died; AZFamily spelled Reed's first name Rachel. KOCO 5 said Reed went to high school in Edmond, Oklahoma. PBS NewsHour said officials had not publicly released victims' names.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that the mother of 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras told other news organizations her daughter was one of the pilots. Her license permitted her to fly that type of Learjet but not to serve as the pilot in command, the paper reported. The second pilot's name had not been released.

Chapman said weather would be a key part of the inquiry. Radio recordings cited by the Anchorage Daily News and AZFamily captured a pilot reporting icing and turbulence near 35,000 feet, then calling an emergency as the jet dropped as fast as 20,000 feet per minute while flying beyond its safe speed. AccuWeather said the FAA had alerted pilots in the area to thunderstorms topping out near 45,000 feet, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The cockpit voice recorder had not been recovered. AZFamily reported that investigators did not yet know whether the jet carried one, while the Anchorage Daily News quoted Chapman as saying the plane was originally fitted with one.

A motorist close by when the jet hit the ground suffered injuries to his leg, NTSB investigator Timothy Monville said, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel G. Flores said people from close to 80 nearby mobile homes were moved to a shelter, with no set date for going home. "Our concern right now is clearing the scene so that our residents can get back to normal," he said, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

AZFamily reported that both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration are looking into the crash.

Compiled by True News from reporting by KOCO 5, AZFamily, PBS NewsHour and Anchorage Daily News. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/715