2.11.2026
Nine persons have been killed after a Learjet 60 they were travelling in plunged 32,000 ft into the ground and burst into flames.
The crash occurred Sunday near Cresthaven, a neighbourhood in Palm Beach County, USA that is less than 11 kilometres from President Donald Trump’s resort home Mar-a-Lago.
“The plane crash in Palm Beach County, Florida is a horrific tragedy,” US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement, confirming that all nine people on the aircraft were killed.
Duffy said the plane, a Learjet 60, had departed from Austin, Texas and was headed for the Bahamas.
“Obviously this is a cataclysmic plane crash,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters near the scene.
“It looked like a missile going down,” he said, adding there were no reports of anyone on the ground being injured.
In an audio recording posted to air traffic website liveatc.net, someone in the cockpit can be heard reporting “moderate turbulence” and saying the crew was “managing the ice.”
The person who is believed to be the pilot said the plane was “picking up precipitation” and needed “to climb” shortly before saying: “Mayday, mayday, we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute.”
“We’re going to crash into the ground…We’re out of time,” Pilot said, shortly before communications stopped. With agency reports