Florida: Learjet 60 with nine on board crashes into a mobile home park in Palm Beach County

A Learjet 60 business jet with nine people on board crashed on Sunday, November 1, in the early afternoon local time, in a residential area of Greenacres in Palm Beach County, Florida. The aircraft came down in a mobile home park, hit a tree and brought down power lines. It broke apart on impact, a crater opened in the road, debris was scattered across the roadway and fires broke out at the scene.

Dead, but the number is not known

The Palm Beach County fire department treated the incident as a mass-casualty event and reported more than one dead. Authorities have not confirmed how many people were killed, or whether the victims include people on the ground. At least one mobile home was destroyed by fire. Video from the scene shows flames, a crater in the road, debris on the wet pavement and downed power lines.

From Texas to the Bahamas

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said, as reported by CNN, that nine people were aboard and that the jet had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, bound for the Bahamas. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the cause, with the NTSB leading. Flight-tracking data from ADS-B Exchange, cited by CNN, show the aircraft lost 27,000 feet of altitude in one minute shortly before its signal disappeared.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said the crash happened near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. Military Trail was closed in both directions and drivers were asked to avoid the area. The site is about four miles, roughly 6.5 kilometres, south of Palm Beach International Airport, which was renamed this year after Donald Trump. The US president, who has a residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and was in the area earlier, had left the same airport aboard Air Force One a little over an hour before the crash.