Learjet 60 Crash Near Mar-a-Lago Kills All Nine Aboard

All nine people aboard a Learjet 60 were killed Sunday when the business jet came down almost vertically into a Palm Beach County road, a few miles from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the deaths Sunday afternoon and called the crash a "horrific tragedy." He said the FAA was sending a team to the scene to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the jet crashed in a residential area near Cresthaven around 12:50 p.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 1. It had left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. Two flight crew members and seven passengers were on board.

Emergency crews shut Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue posted that it would be an extended incident and told the public to stay away.

The Last Four Minutes

NTSB Member Tom Chapman laid out a preliminary timeline at a Monday afternoon news conference. The plane left Austin at about 10:37 a.m. ET. At roughly 12:47 p.m., the crew told air traffic controllers they were picking up light clear icing they considered manageable, along with moderate turbulence.

The jet was at 35,000 feet. The crew reported altitude deviations of about 700 feet and an outside temperature of minus 53 degrees Fahrenheit. Shortly after that, they reported flying in precipitation and asked to climb to 37,000 feet. Controllers approved the request.

"Less than 30 seconds later, a transmission from the airplane announced the descent, followed by a mayday call," Chapman said.

At about 12:48 p.m., the crew reported the aircraft was in an overspeed condition and descending. "We are in an over speed condition descending," the crew said in one of its final transmissions, according to investigators. Later radio calls indicated the jet was rapidly losing altitude. It struck the ground at approximately 12:51 p.m. near Greenacres and Palm Springs.

Chapman said weather is a major focus of the investigation, and that investigators still need to work out what conditions were like at cruising altitude. The NTSB has not confirmed whether the jet flew through an active thunderstorm. Air traffic control audio circulating online, reviewed by aviation trackers, captured the icing and turbulence reports before the overspeed and a 20,000-foot-per-minute descent rate.

Evidence the Jet Was Coming Apart

Investigators have "some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact," Chapman said, while stressing the inquiry is in its earliest stages and no cause has been established.

The debris field measures roughly a half-mile by four-tenths of a mile. Pieces turned up around ball fields, businesses and homes. Investigators had not yet identified all of the aircraft parts recovered from the scene as of Monday, and the NTSB is still searching for components.

Anyone who finds debris is being asked not to touch it and to contact authorities instead. The agency also asked witnesses with photographs or video to email witness@ntsb.gov.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described the crash as "cataclysmic" and told reporters it "looked like a missile going down." He said it left a big crater on the side of the road and that debris was spread over a significant distance. Apart from the people on the plane, he said, officials had no reports of anyone on the ground killed or injured by debris at that point.

Who Was on Board

Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was the co-pilot. She was an aspiring commercial pilot from Palm Beach County who earned her private pilot's license at 17, before she had a driver's license. She trained through her high school's aviation academy and later graduated from American Flyers flight school. Her father, Allan Filgueiras, confirmed to NBC News that she was flying as co-pilot.

Jeff Gregory, 55, was the pilot in charge, the New York Post reported.

Adam Robinson, an Austin tech entrepreneur, was traveling with his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2. Robinson was CEO and co-founder of Retention.com and also led RB2B and Moltsets. Sharp was an entrepreneur, potter and public relations company owner.

In a joint statement, the families remembered Adam and Helen for their "warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome," and described their relationship as "the love affair that will last forever." Emma and Charlie, the families said, "were the light of their lives."

Also killed were family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr. "From the moment they met, they were all in on each other and the life they were building," the families said. The children's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, also died in the crash.

Retention.com, RB2B and Moltsets said in a statement that Robinson "was much more than our CEO. He was a friend, a mentor and a bold, outspoken leader who lived life to the fullest." The companies said their immediate focus was supporting employees and the family, and asked for privacy.

A Crater, a Water Main and 600 Displaced Neighbors

The jet hit at the entrance to a mobile home park, and about 600 people are being relocated, Palm Beach County District 3 Commissioner Joel Flores said. The Red Cross was brought in to provide initial services, and residents were being sent to two county shelters.

"Unfortunately, that's a crime scene," Flores said of the crash site. "They're investigating that, so the people can't stay there."

Video from the aftermath shows a crater in the pavement, burning wreckage and a ruptured waterline. The impact damaged power lines and water mains, and local officials said the road where the jet came down will take a month or more to reopen, the BBC reported. A local school closed Monday.

NTSB Investigator-in-Charge Timothy Monville said one person on the ground suffered a leg injury. According to information given to investigators, that person had been inside a vehicle leaving the area immediately next to the crash site.

The Hunt for the Cockpit Voice Recorder

Maintenance records indicate a cockpit voice recorder had been installed on the aircraft, Chapman said, but investigators still have to confirm it was aboard on Sunday and then find it. If it is recovered, it could become an important part of the investigation.

Recovering the main wreckage from the impact crater in the roadway is one of the biggest obstacles, Monville said. Heavy rainfall left water in the crater, making access harder.

About 20 NTSB investigators started arriving in Palm Beach County on Sunday evening, with more coming Monday. The team includes specialists in aircraft systems and structures, recorders, weather and air traffic control, plus a drone pilot. Work at the scene is expected to run several days.

Chapman said the board will not determine a probable cause while crews are still working the site. "Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened and to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again," he said. Investigators plan to examine maintenance history, engine performance, flight-control systems, weather and recorded flight data.

The Aircraft and Who Operated It

The Learjet 60 was operated by Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jets, according to Chapman. The aircraft was registered as N722BD, serial number 60-271.

Bombardier's Learjet division developed the Learjet 60 as an evolution of the Learjet 55. It first flew in October 1990, was certified in January 1993 and entered service later that year. The midsize jet was built for corporate and private travel.

Two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW305A turbofans sit on the rear fuselage, each producing about 4,600 pounds of thrust. Maximum operating altitude is 51,000 feet. Swept wings, winglets and a T-tail are the design's signature features.

How Close Mar-a-Lago Actually Was

Measurements of the distance between the crash site and Mar-a-Lago have ranged from about six to nine miles, depending on which point is being measured. Flightradar24 data showed the jet's final dive carried it even closer before it veered away.

Trump had left the resort for campaign rallies in Iowa and Kansas roughly an hour before the crash, according to the White House press pool. Storms had been reported in the area that morning.

The flight was a civilian business jet trip on a filed route from Texas to the Bahamas, and the NTSB has pointed to weather as the central line of inquiry so far. Separately, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command confirmed on Oct. 23 that ground-based air defenses had been deployed in and around Mar-a-Lago at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, after systems that analysts identified as short-range Avenger surface-to-air missiles were photographed near Mar-a-Lago and the nearby airport.

Dashcam video of the final seconds, shot by a passing car, shows the jet in a near-vertical nose dive before it hits the roadside and explodes. The cause has not been determined.