Part of the tail of the Learjet 60 that crashed in Palm Beach County on Sunday came off before the jet hit the ground. NTSB board member Tom Chapman gave that update at a news conference on Tuesday. Investigators found most of the left elevator, the tail surface that controls pitch, in three pieces. They lay 1.3 to 3.8 miles from the crater, CBS12 reported.
Chapman called the elevator “a very important piece of evidence,” according to the Associated Press. Did losing it cause the dive, or did the dive tear it away? On that, Chapman said, “we don’t know yet.” The NTSB has not determined a cause.
All nine people aboard died. A statement from Anthony Robinson, reported by ABC News, named his brother Adam Robinson, an Austin entrepreneur, and Adam’s wife, Helen Sharp. Their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, also died. The statement named passengers Rachael Reed, Charmi Fehr and Anita Maria Cetina as well.
The co-pilot’s family identified her as Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office says it is too early to release identities officially. The medical examiner is still carrying out DNA work.
Three pieces of the tail, miles from the crater
The elevator is the first physical sign that the jet came apart in the air. On Monday, Chapman said the evidence indicated the plane began breaking up before impact. Parts could turn up “some distance away from the actual impact site,” he said, as the AP reported via PBS NewsHour. On Tuesday he confirmed it.
Distance is what makes the finding solid. Pieces that far out make it implausible that the elevator broke on ground impact, Chapman said, according to FOX 13. Investigators also collected other small bits of wreckage away from the site that still need analysis, ABC said.
NTSB investigator Timothy Monville put the main debris field at about half a mile by 0.4 miles, according to ABC. It spreads across ball fields, businesses and homes. Most of what investigators have collected is very small fragments, FOX 13 reported. The NTSB has asked anyone who finds possible debris to leave it in place and contact the agency or local authorities, CBS12 reported.
What a missing elevator can and can’t tell investigators
The finding answers one question clearly. Without the elevator, Chapman said, the pilots could not have pulled the jet out of its nosedive. He added a caveat, as the AP quoted him: “At those speeds I don’t know that it would’ve been effective.”
What it cannot yet say is which came first. FOX 13 described the two scenarios investigators are weighing.
In one, the separation caused the loss of control. In the other, extreme forces in the dive ripped the elevator away. Chapman called it “a very, very significant bit of evidence,” CBS12 reported, and told the AP it points investigators toward other areas to examine.
One independent expert on record leans toward the second reading. Jeff Guzzetti is a former NTSB and FAA investigator. He told the AP the pieces were probably a byproduct of the nosedive, not its cause. If they had broken off at altitude, he said, “those pieces would be a lot farther away.” That is his assessment, not the NTSB’s.
By our arithmetic from the NTSB’s figures, the three pieces landed across a band about 2.5 miles long. Where they landed shows the elevator was off before impact. It does not show what force started the separation. That depends on evidence investigators don’t have yet, including whatever lies in the crater.
The flight, minute by minute
This timeline uses Eastern Time. It follows the NTSB’s account as reported by ABC News, CBS12 and the AP. Our earlier piece covers what the pilot’s radio calls tell the NTSB in more detail.
- Sunday, about 10:37 a.m. ET: The Learjet leaves Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for North Eleuthera, Bahamas. It carries two crew and seven passengers.
- 12:47 p.m. ET: At 35,000 feet, the crew reports light clear ice and moderate turbulence. They describe altitude swings of about 700 feet and an outside temperature of minus 47 C. They ask to climb to 37,000 feet, and controllers approve.
- Under 30 seconds later: The crew reports a descent, then a mayday. One call says the jet is “in an overspeed condition descending.”
- Just before 1 p.m. ET: The jet strikes the ground near Military Trail. The FAA said it hit at about 350 feet per second, ABC reported.
- Monday, Nov. 2: At the first briefing, Chapman says the jet may have started breaking up before impact.
- Tuesday, Nov. 3: Chapman reports the elevator finding at the NTSB’s last on-site briefing.
- Wednesday, Nov. 4: Public works crews are due to start pumping rainwater out of the crater, CBS12 reported.
The jet, its operator and the recorder question
The NTSB’s investigation page for case ERA27MA026 lists the operator as Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jet. ABC described the plane as a 22-year-old Learjet 60 owned by that company. When we checked on Nov. 2, the FAA registry listed the jet, N722BD, under LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware.
Maintenance records show the jet had a cockpit voice recorder installed, ABC reported. Investigators don’t know whether it was aboard on the final flight. “That will be very important data,” Chapman said, according to the AP. Neither the NTSB nor the reporting we read has said whether the jet carried a flight data recorder.
Chapman named weather as a key focus. Neither he nor Monville could say whether the jet flew through a thunderstorm, ABC reported. The AP said flight-path overlays on weather maps show the jet flying into a small storm cell that quickly worsened.
Investigators will also review maintenance records, the AP reported. They plan to interview Upper Jets officials, controllers and Austin airport staff. Chapman said he had seen no evidence tying the crash to the Secret Service, and the location appears coincidental.
A preliminary report in about a month
The NTSB expects a preliminary report in about a month, the AP reported. That report lays out facts and does not assign a cause. A final report with a probable cause takes longer. On its investigative process page, the agency says it “tries to complete an investigation within 12 to 24 months.”
The NTSB can recommend safety changes but cannot require them, the AP noted in its guide to the investigation. The FAA, industry and Congress decide. A military inquiry can move differently: the Philippine Air Force grounded its SF-260 trainers after two of them crashed last month.
Tuesday was the last on-site briefing. Further updates will come on the NTSB website and its X account. The agency has also posted video of Tuesday’s briefing. The next step is the crater, where Chapman said critical components may still lie.
