Federal investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the Bombardier Learjet 60 that crashed in Greenacres, Florida, on November 1, killing all nine people on board.
The aircraft, registered as N722BD and operated by charter company Aurora Aviation, departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas on a flight bound for the Bahamas carrying seven passengers and two crew members. As the twin-engine jet approached South Florida, weather conditions deteriorated rapidly. Flight crew members reported encountering icing and moderate turbulence that jolted the aircraft by about 700 feet.
Approaching 35,000 feet near Naples, the pilots requested permission to climb to 37,000 feet. Less than thirty seconds after receiving clearance, the aircraft entered a sharp, rapid descent. Air traffic control recordings captured the frantic final transmissions from the flight deck as the jet fell at rates climbing from 10,000 to 20,000 feet per minute.
If you have found or collected any debris from the crash site near Greenacres, please do not keep it or attempt to move, alter or dispose of it. We ask that you contact the NTSB at witness@ntsb.gov to arrange its recovery. Please include a photo of the debris, if possible, in… https://t.co/Yj6yyVFqhC
We’re going to crash into the ground.
Flight crew member, via Fox News
The business jet plunged nose-first into South Military Trail near 10th Avenue North in Greenacres, erupting into a massive fireball and leaving a deep crater in the roadway. Dashcam footage and passersby captured the aircraft descending from the sky about 7 miles southwest of West Palm Beach.
The crash claimed the lives of all nine occupants. Among the seven passengers were Austin tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 45, his wife Helen Sharp, 40, and their two young children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, along with the family nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, and passengers Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr as identified in a joint family statement.
The two-person flight deck crew consisted of captain Jeffrey Scott Gregory, 55, of Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and 20-year-old first officer Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras of Boca Raton, Florida according to federal registry and NTSB records.
Filgueiras, a recent graduate of American Flyers and a commercial pilot rated for first-officer duties on the Learjet 60, followed her father into aviation. Her father, Allan Filgueiras, told reporters she was his soulmate and lived out her dream in the cockpit after earning her private license at age 17.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded their physical work at the Greenacres impact site by Monday, November 9, after pumping accumulated rainwater from the crater and finishing excavation work. In addition to retrieving the cockpit voice recorder from the main wreckage, teams recovered components from both wings, engines, the flight deck, and aileron sections.
Evidence recovered miles away indicates the aircraft began breaking apart mid-air before impact. NTSB member Tom Chapman confirmed that three pieces of the jet’s left elevator were located between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the primary crash crater. Investigators transported those parts, alongside the recovered black box, to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for data extraction and audio analysis.
NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 60 that crashed on Nov. 1 near Greenacres, Florida. The CVR was located at the site of initial impact. The CVR is being evaluated in the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D. C. The… pic.twitter.com/F6SO4SEhW6
The catastrophic impact caused extensive disruption in the immediate Greenacres neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents living in roughly 77 mobile homes near the crash site in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County officials announced that residents of the mobile home park near the crash site in Greenacres can now return home, while those who cannot return due to damage have been provided temporary housing.
While federal investigators project releasing a preliminary report within weeks, determining the definitive probable cause will take one to two years.
The NTSB has completed its on-scene investigative activities for the Nov. 1 crash of a Learjet 60 near Greenacres, Florida, with the exception of the excavation of the impact site, which remains ongoing. The cleared areas include Green Acres Mobile Home Community, Reading Truck,…
