Learjet 60 crash in Florida kills all nine on board after mayday call; 600 people near Military Trail need shelter

All nine people aboard a Learjet 60 died when the business jet plunged onto a road in Palm Beach County, Florida, at about 12:50 pm local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. The aircraft came down on South Military Trail, near the entrance to a mobile home park and a strip mall car park, minutes after its crew declared an emergency.

No one on the ground was immediately reported hurt. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called the crash "cataclysmic" and said it left a large crater beside the road.

What is confirmed so far

Detail	What officials and flight data show
Aircraft	Learjet 60, registration N722BD
Route	Austin-Bergstrom, Texas, to North Eleuthera, Bahamas
Crash site	South Military Trail, Cresthaven area, Palm Beach County
Time	About 12:50 pm Sunday, local time
Deaths	All 9 on board
Ground injuries	None immediately reported
Displaced	About 600 people
Investigation	NTSB leading, FAA assisting

The site is less than four miles from Palm Beach County's main commercial airport and about five to six miles from Mar-a-Lago. The names of those on board had not been released by officials at the time of publication.

A dive that reached 30,000 feet per minute

The final minutes are already partly known from air traffic control recordings and flight-tracking data. The pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and asked to climb 2,000 feet. Shortly afterwards the jet went into a steep dive, first at about 10,000 feet per minute and then reaching about 30,000 feet per minute, faster than the aircraft was designed to fly.

A crew member declared a mayday and told controllers the plane was descending rapidly and about to hit the ground. The aircraft banked sharply to the right before it struck. Dashcam footage shows it falling nose-first towards the roadway, and it broke apart on impact.

None of this establishes a cause. Icing, control problems, instrument failure and crew response are all questions investigators routinely examine after a loss of control at altitude, and neither agency has pointed to any of them. Such details will come from the flight recorders, if they can be recovered, as well as from maintenance records and weather data.

Hundreds of residents out of their homes

The immediate problem for local officials on Sunday night was shelter. County Commissioner Joel Flores said about 600 people affected by the crash needed a safe place to sleep, and that the Red Cross was standing by to help. Local authorities cleared the mobile home community while federal teams work at the site.

Fire and debris spread near the road, and DeSantis said the quick response may have kept more people out of harm's way. Drivers were told to avoid Military Trail between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North.

For residents in the area, the practical advice is to follow Palm Beach County's emergency updates before trying to return home, and not to touch or collect any wreckage, which forms part of the investigation.

Who is investigating and when answers may come

The National Transportation Safety Board is in charge, with the Federal Aviation Administration supporting it. Duffy described the crash as "a horrific tragedy" and said the FAA was sending a team to the scene.

The NTSB normally publishes a preliminary report within about 30 days, setting out the facts it has gathered without assigning a cause. A final report on the probable cause commonly takes a year or longer. The next expected step is an NTSB briefing from the scene, along with the release of the victims' names once families have been told.