Learjet Crash Evening Update: About 600 Greenacres Mobile-Home Residents Prepared to Relocate as the NTSB Secures the Site
Hours after a Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 killed all nine people aboard in Greenacres, officials closed Military Trail in both directions, prepared to move about 600 nearby mobile-home residents, and left the victims' names unreleased while the NTSB took over.
The investigation into Sunday's Learjet crash in Greenacres moved into its federal phase on Sunday evening, with the National Transportation Safety Board leading the inquiry and the Federal Aviation Administration assisting, according to the evening reporting on the crash. The Learjet 60 went down at about 12:50 p.m. near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, after departing Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, the FAA said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that all nine people aboard were killed. Authorities had not reported any fatalities on the ground, and the identities of the nine victims had not been publicly confirmed in the evening reports. Investigators will examine flight data, cockpit recordings, weather conditions and aircraft maintenance records, and no official determination of the cause has been released.
The ground response widened on Sunday evening: officials closed Military Trail in both directions near the crash site and urged motorists to avoid the area, and local authorities prepared to relocate approximately 600 residents from a nearby mobile home community as investigators secured the area. Air traffic control recordings reported in the evening coverage indicate the flight crew encountered precipitation, turbulence and possible icing before the aircraft began its rapid descent, and declared an emergency as the situation deteriorated — details the NTSB will test against the recorded evidence rather than accept on their own.
For South Florida drivers, the practical fact on Sunday night was the closure itself: Military Trail remained shut at the scene with the investigation under way, and Palm Beach County residents near the site faced an evening of relocation preparations while federal investigators began the work that will produce a preliminary report in the coming weeks.
