Investigators found pieces of the Learjet's horizontal tail section more than a mile from the impact site, confirming the aircraft was breaking apart before it crashed.
Investigators looking into the fatal crash of a Learjet in Florida have found pieces of the horizontal tail section more than a mile from where the aircraft made impact, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
NTSB member Tom Chapman said during a news conference on Tuesday that the discovery of tail parts broken into three pieces confirms the plane was breaking apart before it hit the ground. Chapman noted that the plane's elevator—the part of the tail that controls pitch—was found in three pieces between 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) and 3.8 miles (6.1 kilometers) from the crash site in Greenacres, near West Palm Beach.
"What that means exactly, in terms of what caused the aircraft to lose control, or whether the loss of this piece was a result of the forces on the aircraft, we don’t know yet," Chapman said.
He added that without the elevator intact, the pilot would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its nose dive. However, Chapman noted, "At those speeds I don’t know that it would’ve been effective even if it had still been attached to the aircraft."
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told The Associated Press that the pieces were likely a byproduct of the nosedive rather than the cause, suggesting the components fell off closer to the ground because they were found within a few miles of the site.
The jet was flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas on Sunday when it appeared to have flown into a thunderstorm at 35,000ft. According to radio transmissions from co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras, the aircraft experienced icing and turbulence, causing it to climb and fall by more than 700ft before it began to dive.
In final communications, Filgueiras told air traffic controllers the plane was descending at 8,000ft per minute, then 10,000ft per minute. During one transmission, she said: “Declare an emergency 722 Bravo Delta, we are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000ft per minute.”
The crash killed all nine people aboard. The victims identified by relatives include:
The pilot has been identified by his employer, East Coast Jets, as 55-year-old Jeff Gregory.
Chapman stated that weather would be a key focus of the investigation. While a preliminary report is expected in approximately one month, it will likely take more than a year to determine the exact cause of the crash.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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