Jet may have broken apart before Florida crash, officials say, as family named among victims
Adam Robinson, Helen Sharp, and their two children - Emma, four, and Charlie, two - died after the plane nosedived.
Key points
- A Learjet 60 crashed on a Palm Beach highway on Sunday, killing all nine people onboard.
- Investigators say evidence suggests parts of the aircraft broke off before impact.
- The NTSB is struggling to recover wreckage from a water-filled crater on the road.
Investigators believe parts of a private jet may have broken off in the air before it crashed in Florida on Sunday, killing all nine people onboard. The Learjet 60 was flying from Austin, Texas to the Bahamas when it nosedived into a multi-lane highway in Palm Beach and exploded on impact at around 12:50 local time (17:50 GMT).
The US National Transportation Safety Board said weather would be a major focus of the investigation. Lead investigator Tim Monville said the main difficulty would be recovering wreckage from the crater the jet left on Military Trail, a six-lane road lined with businesses and restaurants.
Breakup evidence and recovery
The NTSB's Tom Chapman said there was evidence of some breakup of the aircraft before impact, and that parts might be found some distance from the crash site. The crater, near the entrance to a mobile home park, had partly filled with water after severe storms; heavy rain and thunderstorms were reported in the area at the time. Debris was scattered across sports fields, businesses and homes.
Officials are also checking whether a cockpit voice recorder was onboard and whether it can be recovered. Flight analysis indicates the jet was descending hundreds of feet per second before the crash. In air traffic control audio, a cockpit voice reports moderate turbulence and managing ice, then says the plane needs to climb, before reporting a rapid descent and that the plane would crash into the ground.
We do have some evidence that there was some breakup of the aircraft before impact
— Tom Chapman of the NTSB
Victims and tributes
Seven passengers died: tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their children Emma, four, and Charlie, two, family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and nanny Anita Maria Cetina. Media reports named the pilot as 55-year-old Jeffrey Gregory and the co-pilot as Nathalia Filgueiras, 20. One man in a car on the ground suffered a leg injury.
A family statement described Robinson and Sharp as devoted parents and their children as the light of their lives. It said Cetina cared for the children with tenderness and devotion and was truly part of the family, and described Reed and Fehr as full of joy and adventure. Filgueiras's mother, Camila Corteleti, confirmed her daughter's death to US media.
