Nine Killed As Viral Footage Shows Private Jet Plummeting to the Ground in Florida
- A Learjet 60 plunged into a Palm Beach County residential area on Sunday, 1 November 2026, killing all nine people aboard
- Chilling cockpit audio captured the pilot declaring a mayday and reporting a descent rate that reached over 32,000 feet per minute
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called it a catastrophic crash as the NTSB launched a formal investigation into the cause
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Source: Getty Images
US - A private jet carrying nine people crashed into a residential neighbourhood near Greenacres, Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday, 1 November 2026, killing everyone on board.
The Learjet 60 had departed from Austin, Texas, and was headed for the Bahamas when it came down shortly after take-off. It struck the ground close to a mobile home community, igniting a massive fireball and carving out a large crater. Emergency services arrived to find debris spread across a wide area surrounding the impact site.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that all nine people aboard the aircraft perished in the crash. The site was approximately 11km from US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Cockpit audio captures final moments
The crash drew widespread attention after recordings of the jet's last communications with air traffic control began circulating online. The audio reportedly shows the pilot initially flagging moderate turbulence and ice build-up while searching for more stable flying conditions.
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The situation unravelled rapidly. "Mayday, mayday! We're descending 10,000 feet per minute," the pilot reportedly told controllers. The reported descent rate then doubled to 20,000 feet per minute before the crew warned they were going to hit the ground.
An air traffic controller could be heard trying to keep the crew calm, saying:
"I'm here with you. Talk to me."
One of the last transmissions from the aircraft included the words, "We're out of time," before all contact was lost. Flight-tracking data cited by Reuters indicated that the jet's descent rate had at one point exceeded 32,000 feet per minute.
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NTSB launches crash investigation
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the incident as a catastrophic crash. Eyewitnesses reportedly compared the sight of the aircraft falling to a missile dropping from the sky.
The National Transportation Safety Board has opened a formal investigation into what caused the aircraft to go down. No cause has been established at this stage.
Cargo plane crashes in Miami
In similar news, Briefly News recently reported that five people were killed and several others injured after an Amazon cargo plane overran a runway at Miami International Airport .According to the BCC, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said the aircraft overran runway 30 at approximately 2 p.m. The Federal Aviation Administration identified the plane as a Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft that had been operating a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Several victims were trapped inside vehicles struck by the aircraft and had to be extricated by emergency services, according to officials.
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Source: Briefly News
