Federal investigators are to hold a news conference at 1 p.m. ET on Monday in West Palm Beach, Fla., a day after a business jet crashed into a South Florida neighbourhood and killed all nine people aboard.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the deaths and said the Learjet 60 went down in Palm Beach County at 12:50 p.m. on Sunday. He called the crash a "horrific tragedy." Authorities have not said what caused it and have not released the names of those on board.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation. The NTSB said investigators were expected at the site on Sunday and Monday.
The aircraft had left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the FAA. Airport spokesperson Jim Reynolds said it was a private aircraft and could not immediately provide details on who was on board.
Palm Beach County sheriff's officials said the crash happened in Greenacres, a city of 45,000 people about 11 kilometres southwest of West Palm Beach. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said the plane came down near the entrance to a mobile home park and that about 600 residents were evacuated and relocated to shelters.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being injured or killed.
"It was a cataclysmic plane crash," DeSantis told reporters at the scene. "It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road."
The jet was flying east at about 35,000 feet when the pilot reported problems, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net. The pilot said ice was accumulating and turbulence was jolting the plane by as much as 700 feet.
"We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence," the pilot told controllers.
The pilot then asked to climb another 2,000 feet and soon declared an emergency, radioing that the plane was descending at 10,000 feet per minute and later 20,000 feet per minute. The pilot said the aircraft was in an overspeed condition and that it was going to crash. CBC News reported, citing the recordings and flight tracking data, that the descent rate reached as high as 30,000 feet per minute. The plane banked sharply to the right before hitting the ground and exploding.
Rain pounded the region on Sunday, and the National Weather Service had a flood watch in effect through Monday afternoon.
Steve Arroyo, an aviation safety expert, said icing and turbulence could have been factors and may have caused the plane to stall, but that investigators will not rule anything out at this early stage.
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