Nine killed as business jet crashes onto Florida road

All nine people aboard a business jet died when it crashed into a neighbourhood in Florida on Sunday, November 1, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. The Learjet 60 struck Military Trail in Palm Beach County at about 12:50 EST, or 17:50 GMT. No injuries or deaths were reported among people on the ground.

The aircraft had left Austin, Texas, and was travelling to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It came down near Cresthaven, roughly nine miles, or 14km, from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. The identities of those aboard were not yet clear.

Images from the scene showed a large crater in the road, with flames and aircraft wreckage spread across the lanes. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office identified the location as a six-lane stretch of Military Trail lined with businesses and restaurants. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue declared a mass casualty incident.

Flight analysis indicated that the jet was falling hundreds of feet each second before impact. In air traffic control recordings from the final moments of the flight, a person in the cockpit reported moderate turbulence and said the crew was dealing with ice. The speaker then described increasing precipitation and said the aircraft needed to climb.

The cockpit account quickly shifted to a rapid descent, initially reported at 10,000ft, or 3,048m, per minute. A crew member declared an emergency and reported excessive speed while descending at 20,000ft per minute, before warning that the aircraft would hit the ground. The final transmission, about 35 seconds after the first mayday call, indicated that time had run out.

Unverified video shared on social media appeared to capture the impact from a vehicle's dashboard camera. It showed traffic moving along a suburban residential street before an aircraft plunged almost vertically into the ground and erupted in a fireball. Speaking at a news conference, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the footage as jarring and compared the aircraft's descent to a missile.

DeSantis and local officials said 600 residents were being evacuated from a nearby trailer-park community. They reported substantial damage to infrastructure, including water lines, and said the road would remain closed for at least 30 days. Thunderstorms had been reported around the time of the crash, and heavy rain continued during the news conference.

Duffy called the crash a "horrific tragedy" and said the FAA was dispatching a team to assist the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation. Trump had spent Sunday morning at Mar-a-Lago and left a nearby airport aboard Air Force One approximately an hour before the jet crashed.