Lear 60 Crash Kills Nine in Florida

A Learjet 60 crashed that crashed almost vertically into a neighborhood in Green Acres, Palm Beach County, Florida on Sunday appears to be missing its horizontal stablilizer. A still from a dash cam video of the crash shows the aircraft hitting the ground at very high speed and a video of the aftermath shows a large crater with burning debris around it. There were nine people aboard the plane and all were killed. The flight originated at Austin Bergstrom Airport and was headed to the Bahamas. This is a developing story and we’ll add details as they become available.

There were thunderstorms in the area at the time of the accident and AvBrief meteorology columnist Tim Vasquez said that Lear appeared to fly into the top of a thunderstorm cell and descended immediately after. He said the storm did not appear unusually intense. He said that based on initial data, the plane may have been diving at a rate of almost 600 mph when it his the ground. Disturbing ATC audio, which we’ve chosen not to run, has the pilot reporting moderate turbulence and precipitation before a sudden and significant loss of altitude while trying to climb to 37,000 feet. She last reported the altitude loss at 22,000 fpm.

The post Lear 60 Crash Kills Nine in Florida appeared first on AvBrief.com.