Photo credit, Reuters
The crash of a private jet, which occurred Sunday afternoon in a South Florida neighborhood while the plane was flying at high speed, cost the lives of all nine people on board.
Footage captured by nearby surveillance cameras shows the dramatic moment the Learjet 60 crashes into the ground on a street in Greenacres in the Palm Beach metropolitan area.
The impact was so violent that it created a crater and caused the twin-engine plane to disintegrate into thousands of small pieces of debris.
The victims were identified: pilot Nathalia Gadelha, aged 20; passengers Adam Robinson, Helen Sharp, children Emma and Charlie Robinson, as well as their nanny Anita María Cetina; and the couple formed by Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
The other pilot was identified as 55-year-old Jeffrey Gregory.
On the ground, a person traveling in a vehicle was injured in the leg; However, according to initial investigations, there are no other victims apart from the passengers of the plane.
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“The main difficulty we will face will be recovering the major debris located in the impact crater, right in the street,” Timothy Monville, investigator in charge of the case for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said at a press conference on Monday.
The spokesperson for the organization, Thomas Chapman, indicated that an investigation into the circumstances of the accident had been opened, while specifying that the authorities could not, at this stage, formulate any hypotheses on the causes of the crash.
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However, he suggested that the Learjet 60 could have encountered a problem and suffered "some disintegration" before crashing on this street in Greenacres.
These are the elements made public this Monday by the NTSB.
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The private flight was operated by Upper Jets, aboard a 22-year-old Learjet 60.
The plane took off at 9:37 a.m. Sunday from Austin International Airport, Texas, bound for North Eleuthera Airport, located on a tourist island in the Bahamas.
Seven passengers and two crew members were on board.
Over the Florida peninsula, the flight encountered difficult weather conditions: since the morning, thunderstorms and unstable cloud areas were reported.
Chapman explained that at 12:00 p.m., the crew informed air traffic control that they had encountered "light clear icing, which remained manageable", as well as "moderate turbulence".
The aircraft was flying at a typical cruising altitude of 35,000 feet (10,668 m), but unstable weather caused altitude variations of approximately 700 feet (213 m).
The reported temperature at this altitude was -47 °C; This is crucial for future investigations, as such conditions favor the formation of ice, which poses a risk to aircraft.
The pilots then requested to climb to 37,000 feet to avoid the rain.
“Less than 30 seconds later, a transmission from the aircraft announced the descent, followed by a distress call,” Chapman said.
At 12:48 p.m., the plane transmitted to the controller: “We are overspeeding during descent…”, the rest of the message being unintelligible.
He also specified that the plane was descending quickly and communicated the altitude. Audio recordings of communications demonstrate the seriousness of the situation the pilots were trying to cope with.
However, the aircraft was never able to right itself after this uncontrolled descent and crashed at high speed in the Palm Beach area.
“Unfortunately, everyone on board lost their lives,” Chapman said, sending his condolences to the victims’ families.
Photo credit, Getty Images
What happened next?
The violent shock dug a crater at the precise point of impact; However, Chapman and Monville reported that small pieces of debris from the aircraft were found within a radius of approximately 750 meters.
The first investigations made it possible to locate this debris on baseball fields, as well as at businesses and private residences.
“The debris is very small,” Chapman said.
On site was a semi-permanent housing complex where approximately 600 people resided.
Some residents shared videos showing small pieces of metal and fragments of equipment from the device, scattered everywhere, hitting vehicles and homes.
Monville stressed that, for investigators, one of the "major obstacles" consists of recovering the elements remaining in the crater, which had filled with water after the rupture of an underground pipe.
Asked about the possibility that the plane lost its horizontal stabilizer in flight — as it appears in a video before the impact — Chapman said: "It's possible. We have some evidence that the plane suffered some disintegration before the impact. We're still trying to confirm that."
“It is possible that we will find debris from the plane some distance from the impact site,” he added.
Surprisingly, only one person, who was in a car near the point of impact, suffered leg injuries.
“These are just the first steps in a long investigative process,” Chapman told reporters, who insisted on knowing the probable causes of the accident.
The official reiterated that there would be no speculation.
Authorities also refused to say whether the young pilot, Nathalia Gadelha, was at the controls, or whether she was just monitoring instruments and managing communications — as can be heard in audio recordings of exchanges with air traffic controllers in the area.
Photo credit, @itsnatfilg/Threads
Bad weather 'undoubtedly was a factor'
However, he addressed, in part, the issue of the weather conditions that prevailed in the minutes preceding the incident.
The official said the reported turbulence "undoubtedly played a role" during the plane's flight over Florida.
“What we need to determine is the weather conditions that prevailed at 35,000 feet,” he said, adding that necessary investigations are underway.
NTSB experts will conduct the required interviews to find out "who knew what and when, what actions were taken, and whether those actions were appropriate" for the flight's navigation in the poor weather conditions then prevailing in Florida.
Officials said they had not yet found the flight recorder among the debris; an element which would nevertheless be crucial to obtain detailed information on the course of events before this tragic incident.
Who are the victims?
Photo credit, Anthony Robinson/Facebook
Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was the first victim identified by her family on Monday.
The young woman had obtained her private pilot's license very recently, in 2023, at the age of 17.
“She loved freedom,” her mother, Camila Corteleti, told *The New York Times* on Monday. “Seeing the world from the air was something totally different.”
His flying companion was 55-year-old Jeffrey Gregory.
Passengers who died included a couple, Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp, and their young children, Emma, 4, and Charlie Robinson, 2. The children's nanny, Anita María Cetina, also accompanied them.
Photo credit, Anthony Robinson / Facebook
Another couple was Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
"Helen and Adam embodied a love story destined to last forever. Their warmth, their generosity and their gift for putting people at ease touched countless lives. Their passing will be deeply felt by all those who loved them, and whom they loved in return," wrote the passengers' loved ones in a joint statement.
"Charmi and Rachael were overflowing with joy and a thirst for adventure. They loved their loved ones with fervor, intensity and without the slightest hesitation. From the moment they met, they devoted themselves entirely to each other and to the life they were building. They are deeply loved, and their absence will leave a huge void," they added.
Regarding Cetina, they described her as a nanny who "cared for Emma and Charlie with tenderness and devotion; she was truly part of the family. She left us a legacy of unconditional love and devotion."
They thanked the rescue teams and expressed their condolences regarding the pilots.
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