‘We’re Out of Time’: 9 Killed as Learjet 60 Plunges Into Florida Mobile Home Park
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A Learjet 60 carrying nine people crashed into a mobile home park outside Greenacres, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, killing everyone aboard and sending roughly 600 residents fleeing as a fireball rose over the wreckage.
The jet, registration N722BD, departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas and went down around 12:50 p.m. local time near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North, outside Greenacres in Palm Beach County, according to the New York Post. It tore into a residential area, leaving a crater beside the wreckage of a home.
Air traffic control audio captured the crew’s final moments. The pilot reported moderate turbulence and icing before issuing a mayday — “we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute.” Seconds later came the haunting final transmission: “overspeed condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute” — and a crew member’s voice: “we’re out of time,” the Post reports.
No one on the ground was killed or injured, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday evening after visiting the scene, calling the crash “cataclysmic.” Severe thunderstorms with heavy rain were over the area at the time of the crash, per the Palm Beach Post.
An NTSB go-team was arriving Sunday night into Monday, and a briefing is planned in West Palm Beach. The FAA and NTSB are investigating.
File photo — a Learjet 60, the same model as the jet that crashed near Greenacres. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.