Learjet crashes and erupts into flames in Florida, killing all 9 on board

By Cindy Von Quednow, Aaron Cooper, Pete Muntean, CNN

(CNN) — A private jet traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas careened into the ground in Palm Beach County, Florida, Sunday afternoon, leaving a deep crater and burning debris just feet from nearby homes and businesses and killing all nine on board, officials say.

Video from a passing vehicle shows the jet, a Learjet 60, slamming down nose first on a busy roadway in a flash before a fireball erupts.

“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “It looked like a missile going down.”

There were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured.

Before the crash, the pilot calmly reported ice accumulating on the aircraft, with an outside air temperature of -47 degrees Celsius, and moderate turbulence, bouncing the plane by up to 700 feet, according to a recording of air traffic control radio calls captured by LiveATC.net.

But moments later, the pilot began to sound more panicked.

“Mayday, mayday,” the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center. “We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute!”

“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” they yelled, “We’re going to crash into the ground!”

The jet descended 27,000 feet over the course of one minute, just before flight tracking data cut off, the website ADS-B Exchange shows.

Officials have not said what caused the jet to crash, and they have not identified the nine who died or said how many were passengers and crew.

There were scattered storms in the area at the time, and the plane passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before it began descending, but it is unclear if the storm contributed to the crash.

A news conference is expected Monday as authorities from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigate.’

‘I heard and felt the boom’

The crash marks the second deadliest plane crash in the United States this year, according to NTSB records, after 12 people died in June when a skydiving plane crashed in Butler, Missouri. It is also the worst crash involving a Learjet 60, according to data from the Flight Safety Foundation. In 2008, four people were killed when a Learjet 60 bound for Los Angeles crashed on takeoff from Columbia, South Carolina.

The plane hit the ground shortly before 1 p.m. on Military Trail, a major thoroughfare between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said. The roadway was left shattered and burning debris dotted the crater, video from CNN affiliate WPBF showed.

“There is a lot of debris that was strewn as a result of this crash,” DeSantis said.

The scene is just miles from the airport in West Palm Beach that was recently renamed for President Donald Trump and his Mar-A-Lago resort.

About 600 people are in need of shelter because the damage on the ground is blocking the entrance of a mobile home park, said Joel Flores, Palm Beach County commissioner for District 3, who was the first county official at the scene. Residents are being sent to two shelters in the county while the site is being investigated, he said.

“I heard and felt the boom,” Andrew Mannino told CNN. “The power immediately went out and is still out.”

Mannino said he smelled the smoke and “saw a large black cloud immerse in the air.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the crash a “horrific tragedy.”

A steep descent

Dash cam video showing the crash is going to be important to investigators piecing together what happened, said Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the Transportation Department.

“That is not a controlled descent,” Schiavo told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield Sunday. “It’s clear, whatever happened, they had lost control of the plane.”

The steep descent could have forced parts of the plane to break off and the flight data recorder could have been destroyed in the explosion, she added.

Investigators will also have to piece together whether the environment played a part in the crash.

Ice on wings and other surfaces can also pose a major threat to private jets. In January 2024, the NTSB published a safety alert underscoring the risks of in-flight icing conditions, which can cause pilots to lose control. The agency warned ice can “make managing the airplane’s flightpath and airspeed more difficult and can prevent the airplane from maintaining level flight.”

It’s not clear if the plane had a cockpit voice recorder on board, but FAA regulations require jet aircraft with more than one engine to carry a voice recorder if they are flown for hire.

The plane is registered to an LLC in Delaware, according to FAA records, and is listed as available for charter online.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN meteorologist Tyler Ory and CNN’s Amanda Jackson and Nic Anderson contributed to this report.