Nine people died Sunday when a Learjet 60 went down in a West Palm Beach neighborhood in Florida, The Washington Post reported. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy stated that the crash was a "horrific tragedy."
At 12:50 in the afternoon, the aircraft, a Learjet 60 that had taken off from Austin for the Bahamas, plunged into a residential neighborhood, the FAA said.
So far, no names of those aboard have been released by authorities. Duffy said, "Please join me in praying for the families and loved ones of those we lost."
Archived radio communications show the pilot telling air traffic control, not long before the crash, that the aircraft faced moderate turbulence, ice and rain.
After asking whether reaching an altitude of 37,000 feet was possible, the pilot called mayday to the air traffic controllers, and her voice could be heard as the jet pitched into a dive. "We're going to crash into the ground," she said. The jet was falling at 22,000 feet per minute by then.
"We're out of time," the pilot said. Controllers tried without success to reach the aircraft afterward.
Over a single minute, the jet plunged by upward of 25,000 feet before the data feed went dark, the tracking site ADS-B Exchange reported.
Jeff Guzzetti, who formerly investigated accidents for both the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said, "Once an airplane gets to be going that fast, there's very little you can do to slow it down or pull it out."
Earlier this year, the West Palm Beach airport, which lies about four miles north of the crash site, was renamed in honor of President Donald Trump.
In footage that circulated online, the jet is seen bursting into flames on impact, a scene Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said was "jarring."
At a briefing held close to the scene on Sunday afternoon, DeSantis said, "This was a cataclysmic plane crash." He added, "It looked like a missile going down. It left a big crater on the side of the road."
He praised emergency crews for their speed. "The debris was significant, and it went over a pretty significant distance." He noted, "To have those people on board is really a tragic way to see people pass away."
The NTSB said in an X statement that it is dispatching a go-team, with its investigators arriving at the scene on Sunday as well as Monday morning.
To assist the NTSB's inquiry, the FAA will also dispatch a team of its own, Duffy said.
The plane hit at the entrance to a mobile home park, where county commissioner Joel Flores said evacuating residents came first.
"The people can't stay there. We are relocating them to two shelters in the county," Flores said. About 600 people needed food and shelter, with the Red Cross on standby. "That's our worry right now, making sure those folks have somewhere to go, to stay safe for the night," he added.
