An NTSB member says investigators have recovered Learjet tail components at distances beyond the crash crater, indicating the aircraft was breaking apart before impact.
The Story
Investigators have found parts of the Learjet’s tail at a distance of more than a mile from the crater created when the jet struck the ground in South Florida, a National Transportation Safety Board member said during a news conference Tuesday.
NTSB member Tom Chapman said the discovery of tail components supports the conclusion that the aircraft was breaking apart before it hit the ground. He said the tail’s elevator was broken into three parts and that losing the elevator would have prevented the pilot from pulling the Learjet out of its dive in time.
Chapman also acknowledged Monday that parts of the jet likely began separating before the aircraft struck the ground.
In the minutes before the crash, co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras told air traffic controllers that ice was accumulating on the aircraft and that severe turbulence had thrown it up and down by more than 700 feet (210 metres). She then made a final, panicked call to air traffic control minutes before the jet slammed into the ground and erupted in a fireball.
The Learjet 60 crashed Sunday afternoon in Greenacres, about 7 miles (11 kilometres) southwest of West Palm Beach. The impact scattered fragments over a wide area; about 600 nearby residents were displaced and only one injury was reported on the ground.
The plane departed Austin, Texas, and was headed for the Bahamas. The victims included technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, and their two young children, relatives said.
Chapman said weather would be a key focus of the investigation. He said a preliminary report describing what happened will be released in about a month, and that it may take more than a year to determine the cause of the crash.
← More stories