A Learjet 60 business jet carrying nine people plunged nose-first from 35,000 feet into a roadway in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday, 1 November, killing everyone on board — and five days on, federal investigators say they still do not know why the aircraft fell out of the sky.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading what it has warned will be a complicated and lengthy investigation, made harder by the violence of the impact: the jet hit the ground at more than 300 mph, exploded into a fireball, and left a waterlogged crater where much of the wreckage now lies buried.
What investigators have recovered so far points to a sudden, catastrophic loss of control in bad weather — but whether the aircraft broke apart before it began to fall, or was torn apart by the fall itself, remains unanswered.
What happened on the flight
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Learjet 60 departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas at 10:37 a.m. ET on 1 November, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. The aircraft was operated by Aurora Airlines, doing business as Upper Jets, the NTSB said.
Flying at about 35,000 feet as scattered storms moved across South Florida, the crew told air traffic control that ice was forming on the aircraft but was manageable, and that turbulence was throwing the plane up and down by about 700 feet. The outside temperature was minus 53 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 47 Celsius), the co-pilot reported, and the crew was, in her words, “managing the ice” and seeking “better rides”.
Moments earlier, as the jet approached Florida’s Gulf Coast, a controller had warned that a turn the pilots had requested toward the Bahamas could take them into a thunderstorm. “The turn to Freeport looks pretty bad,” the controller said, according to audio captured by LiveATC.net. The jet flew south around the storm before being cleared to turn east.
Shortly before 1 p.m., the crew reported taking on precipitation and asked to climb to 37,000 feet. Miami Center approved the climb. Less than a minute later, the co-pilot issued a mayday call: the aircraft was descending at 10,000 feet per minute. Seconds later, she declared an emergency and said the descent rate had accelerated to 20,000 feet per minute.
“We’re going to crash into the ground,” the co-pilot said. About 35 seconds after the first distress call, her last transmission was: “We’re out of time.”
Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the vertical descent rate at one point exceeding 32,000 feet per minute. Dash-cam video captured the jet nosediving into the ground near the entrance to a mobile home community in Greenacres, close to South Military Trail and Cresthaven Boulevard, before erupting in flames.
The nine people on board
All nine people aboard were killed: the pilot, the co-pilot, and seven passengers. Family members identified the passengers as Adam Robinson, 45, and his wife, Helen Sharp, 40, their two young children, aged 2 and 4, the children’s nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, and another couple, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
The co-pilot was Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, a graduate of the Academy of Aviation and Aerospace at West Boca Raton High School, according to her family. The captain was Jeff Gregory, 55, identified by his former employer, East Coast Jets, as well as CBS News and the New York Post.
On the ground, one person suffered a leg injury while leaving the area in a vehicle, according to the NTSB. At least 600 people living near the crash site were evacuated, Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said, and the wreckage blocked the only entrance to a nearby mobile home park, forcing residents from their homes. Some may not be able to return for up to two weeks, Flores said.
What investigators have found
The most important clue recovered so far fell miles from the impact site. On Tuesday, NTSB member Tom Chapman said investigators had recovered most of the jet’s left elevator — the movable surface on the tail that controls whether the nose tilts up or down — in three pieces, found between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the crater.
That distance shows the elevator broke away before the plane hit the ground. But investigators do not yet know whether the breakaway caused the dive, or whether the forces of the dive tore it off. Former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz, now a CNN aviation analyst, told CNN it was unlikely the elevator caused the upset: “My guess is … the elevator is a result of the disrupted flight, not the cause of it.” Investigators will study the broken edges for “witness marks” that can show whether the piece was violently torn away or had an earlier weakness, such as metal fatigue.
On 5 November, the NTSB said crews had also recovered a piece of an engine at the crash site, where excavation work had begun a day earlier. Crews have begun pumping water from the crater, which filled with rainwater after the crash, and Chapman said investigators expect to find critical components inside it — though “in smaller pieces”.
One key target of the search is the cockpit voice recorder, often called a black box. Chapman said maintenance records indicate such a device was installed on the aircraft at some point, but investigators do not know whether it was still on board before the crash — and even a recovered recorder does not guarantee answers, as a jammed recorder after a January 2025 Learjet crash in Philadelphia showed.
Chapman said investigators could work without it: “Our folks are very, very good. We’re still able to do some incredible detective work.”
Weather, ice and the question of what went wrong
Weather is “certainly a key focus of the investigation”, Chapman said. Ice is one of the most dangerous hazards in aviation: it adds weight and drag, and reduces a plane’s lift and thrust. Powerful updrafts inside thunderstorms can carry supercooled water droplets to high altitudes — droplets that remain liquid until they hit a plane and freeze on contact.
Experts told USA TODAY that investigators will likely zero in on how the plane found itself in a precarious, high-altitude situation in bad weather, and why it suddenly plummeted. Some pointed to icing and turbulence; others raised “Mach tuck”, a condition in which jets speed toward the earth nose-down with almost no ability to avert disaster. Officials stress that no cause has been established.
A severe storm could have threatened the jet in several ways, CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo said: it could have caused both engines to flame out, or coated the wings or tail in ice. The recovered tail pieces could become “the pivotal point in the investigation”, she said, because they may help investigators work out which of those things happened.
Context: the crash is the deadliest aviation accident in Palm Beach County in more than 80 years, according to NTSB and Aviation Safety Network data. The NTSB investigates about 1,200 aviation accidents and incidents a year.
What happens next
| Step | What it involves | When |
|---|---|---|
| On-site investigation | Debris recovery, crater excavation, witness video, flight logs and maintenance records | Under way |
| Preliminary report | Factual information collected on scene only — no analysis or finding of probable cause | About 30 days after the crash |
| Full investigation | Sequence reconstruction, lab analysis, probable-cause determination | 12 to 24 months, typically |
| Final report | Findings and safety recommendations published | After the report is adopted |
Chapman said NTSB crews, working with local, state and other federal partners, will recover as much of the aircraft as possible before laying out the pieces to identify the shape, form and location of each component. Investigators are also reviewing dash-cam footage and other video recorded by drivers and bystanders, and have asked the public for help: anyone who finds wreckage should not touch or move it, but should contact the NTSB or local authorities. “Where they find the pieces will give the NTSB clues as to how this plane came apart,” Schiavo said.
What is not yet known: no cause has been determined. It is not yet established whether icing, turbulence, a storm updraft or downdraft, a mechanical failure, or a combination of factors brought the jet down — and whether the tail elevator separated before or because of the dive. Any claim about the cause before the NTSB’s preliminary report would be speculation.
Frequently asked questions
What type of aircraft was involved?
A Learjet 60, a twin-engine business jet, operated by Aurora Airlines, doing business as Upper Jets. It departed Austin, Texas, for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
How many people were killed?
Nine — two crew members and seven passengers, including two young children. One person on the ground was injured. The NTSB has confirmed all nine aboard died.
Why did the plane fall?
That is what the investigation must determine. The crew reported ice and moderate turbulence minutes before the crash, and the jet passed through a strong storm cell just before its sudden descent. But investigators have not established whether weather caused the loss of control, or whether a structural failure came first.
What is the significance of the tail piece found miles away?
Most of the jet’s left elevator was found in three pieces 1.3 to 3.8 miles from the crash site, showing it separated before impact. Investigators do not yet know if that separation caused the dive or resulted from it — a distinction the broken metal edges may help resolve.
When will we know more?
The NTSB aims to release a preliminary report, containing only factual information, about a month after the crash. Determining a probable cause will take between one and two years.
Key takeaways
- A Learjet 60 carrying nine people crashed nose-first into a Palm Beach County roadway on 1 November, killing everyone on board.
- The crew reported icing and turbulence minutes before a mayday call; the jet’s descent rate reached 20,000 feet per minute, with a final transmission of “We’re out of time.”
- The jet’s left elevator was found in three pieces up to 3.8 miles from the crater — a key clue, but investigators do not know if it caused the dive or resulted from it.
- No cause has been established. A preliminary NTSB report is expected in about a month; a full finding will take one to two years.
The NTSB’s mission, Chapman said, is “to understand not just what happened, but why it happened and to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again”. The next milestone is the preliminary report, expected in early December, which should establish the verified facts of the flight’s final minutes even as the question of cause remains open.
