The final moments of a private jet flight over Florida were captured in a chilling series of cockpit recordings.
What began as a warning about the weather soon turned into a terrifying emergency.
Crashed eight miles from Mar-a-Lago
The Bombardier-made Learjet 60 plunged into a South Florida neighborhood on Sunday, crashing near a busy road and bursting into a massive fireball.
The impact appeared to narrowly miss nearby homes, but all nine people aboard were killed, according to the US transportation secretary.
The crash happened in Greenacres, near West Palm Beach, just eight miles from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
An audio recording from Miami air traffic control, shared on LiveATC.net, captured the jet’s final communications with controllers in remarkable detail as the emergency unfolded.
In the minutes leading up to the disaster, the pilot told air traffic controllers that ice was building up on the aircraft. She also reported severe turbulence, with the jet being jolted up and down by as much as 700 feet.
”We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers.
Requested permission to climb
But conditions soon became far more dangerous. After encountering precipitation, the crew requested permission to climb another 2,000 feet. Shortly afterwards, the pilot declared an emergency as the jet began losing altitude at a terrifying rate.
The cockpit recording captures the increasingly frantic exchanges as the pilot struggled to describe what was happening.
”Seven two two bravo delta, we’re descending 8,000… mayday mayday… we’re descending 10,000ft per minute,” she can be heard saying.
Moments later, her voice grows even more distressed.
”Declaring emergency, declaring emergency, we are in an overspeed condition,” she says, before reporting an even more alarming descent.
”Descending 20,000ft per minute… we’re going to crash into the ground.”
An air traffic controller can be heard trying to reassure the pilot, telling her: ‘I’m here with you, talk to me.’
But the situation was rapidly spiralling out of control.
”We are descending 22,000ft, and we are banking 60 degrees,” the pilot responds.
The steep angle meant the aircraft was tilted dramatically to one side.
Then came another desperate cry: ”We’re out of time.”
All nine people aboard were killed, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed.
The $2 million business jet crashed near South Military Trail and Marilyn Drive at around 12.50pm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The impact left a large crater in the roadside, with wreckage scattered across the surrounding area. Palm Beach County authorities evacuated around 600 residents from a nearby mobile home community as federal investigators worked to determine what had caused the crash.
Anthony Blackmon, who lived nearby, told NBC6 that he had been just 500 feet from the crash when the terrifying scene unfolded. The force of the impact sent debris flying toward his home, while flames quickly spread across the area.
“Debris was everywhere. Debris hit my house. Everything was on fire. The road was on fire,” Blackmon said.
He added that he had never imagined witnessing something like this so close to home.
“I’ve always seen it on the news, never thought it would happen so close to somebody like how it happened today,” Blackmon added.
Flight data showed that the aircraft had departed Austin, Texas, and was heading for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas when the journey came to a sudden and devastating end. Dashcam footage from a passing driver captured the moment the jet struck the ground, triggering an enormous explosion.
Images from the scene showed thick smoke rising above the wreckage, while the force of the impact also brought down power lines.
The FAA confirmed that the aircraft fell approximately 32,000 feet in just one minute.
The crash happened during heavy rain, with the National Weather Service having issued a flood watch for the area that remained in effect through Monday afternoon.
Trump had been at Mar-a-Lago earlier that Sunday. He left from the nearby airport shortly before noon, around an hour before the Learjet crashed.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office described the situation as a ‘mass casualty aircraft-related incident’, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke of the extraordinary force of the impact.
”Obviously this is a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters near the scene.
Describing what witnesses had seen, he added: ”It looked like a missile going down.”
The governor said there were no reports of anyone on the ground being injured.
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