Investigation into Florida plane crash that killed 9 underway -

Updated Nov. 2, 2026, 8:01 p.m. ET

A business jet may have started breaking up midair before crashing into a South Florida community, killing all nine people on board and leaving behind a massive debris field, investigators said Monday, Nov. 2.

Officials say a Learjet 60 en route to the Bahamas from Austin, Texas, crashed around 12:50 p.m. ET Sunday in Palm Beach County, less than 10 miles from President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago resort. Authorities are working to determine what led to the crash.

National Transportation Safety Board member Thomas Chapman said at a news conference Monday that there is evidence the aircraft began breaking up before impact, but they’re still working to determine exactly what happened.

Videos show the plane nosediving into the ground near a busy road and the entrance of a mobile home community before erupting into flames. The crash scattered debris across an area that is about half a mile by four tenths of a mile, though there are conflicting reports about the size of the debris field, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Timothy Monville.

The crash sparked multiple fires and forced around 600 people to evacuate their homes.

All nine people on the plane were killed in the crash, and a man on the ground suffered a leg injury, officials said. In a statement, the Palm Beach Medical Examiner’s Office said it had not yet identified those on board the aircraft.

But the mother of one of the pilots identified her daughter as 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras, The New York Times and New York Post reported. Family members said a married couple and two children were among those killed.

During a brief news conference on Nov. 1, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described the accident as a “cataclysmic plane crash.”

“It was a big-time tragedy that happened,” DeSantis told reporters near the crash site in Lake Worth Beach. “When you see that video, it’s a jarring thing. It was like a missile coming down, and a massive explosion, debris going everywhere.”

The cause of the crash remains unknown. Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms were occurring in the area at the time, forecaster AccuWeather said in a statement. Harrowing audio from the cockpit revealed the crew was managing ice and moderate turbulence before they reported a rapid descent and issued a mayday call.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

Officials ‘very hopeful’ for black box recovery

Chapman, the NTSB board member, said records indicate a cockpit voice recorder, also known as a black box, was installed on the aircraft at some point, but investigators don’t know whether that recorder was still on board before the crash.

“We’re very hopeful that we can recover it,” he said.

Despite the name, the units are usually bright orange so searchers can find them in wreckage. Manufacturers build them to survive severe impact, fire, and deep water.

Chapman said investigators will be better off if the device is found, but without it they’ll “still be able to do some incredible detective work and determine how things transpired.”

–Andrew Marra and N’dea Yancey-Bragg

Neighbor recalls crash and boom

Armando Perez, a nighttime truck driver, was lying in bed when a boom jolted him up straight.

“I thought, ‘Is this freaking Iran?'” Perez said. The force shook his body like a gigantic subwoofer. “That’s when the screaming and crying” from his alarmed neighbors started, he said.

Perez, his mother and his stepfather were among hundreds of residents near the crash site who were put on Palm Tran buses and driven to the Greenacres Community Center. Authorities said it was too early to say how long the investigation would take or how long a mobile home park near the crash site would remain closed.

They had only enough time to grab two days’ worth of clothes, along with their phones, shoes, passports, wallets, and a blanket for their 3-year-old chihuahua, Chupita. Mobile home park residents were ordered to evacuate without their cars.

–Chris Persaud and Andrew Marra

Copilot ‘fought until the last moment,’ sister says

In an interview outside her Boca Raton, Florida, home – already a magnet for local and national reporters – the sister of Nathalia Filgueiras said the 20-year-old copilot “fought until the last moment she could.”

Giulia Filgueiras, 21, said Nathalia was a brave, “amazing girl” who always followed her dreams. She wanted to be a pilot since she was 12, Giulia Filgueiras said, and “showed any girl could do what it takes.”

–Arianna Otero

Weather conditions are a ‘major concern of the investigation’

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and NTSB investigators declined to speculate on what could have brought down the plane.

Experts who reviewed flight path data, radar images, and the final breathless words of the ill-fated plane’s copilot told the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, the jet in its last moments may have been trying to fly above an explosive thunderstorm, whose intense upward rush of moist warm air may have led to the rapid freezing of water droplets that otherwise don’t ice up at higher altitudes.

In severe icing situations, the entire loss of maneuverability can happen, MyRadar Weather senior meteorologist Matthew Cappucci said.

The aircraft crew reported that they were “managing ice” and “picking up precipitation” before the crash, Chapman said. When asked whether attempting to climb when encountering such conditions is the right decision, Chapman told reporters it is one of several possible maneuvers in that situation.

Investigators are still working to determine whether the conditions at the altitude the plane was flying contributed to the crash. “The weather conditions are a major concern of the investigation,” Chapman said.

Meanwhile, weather conditions on the ground are making the recovery effort more challenging. Investigators said there is currently water in the impact crater, making it more difficult to access the site.

“The biggest obstacle we’re going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway,” Monville said.

Married couple, 2 toddlers among crash victims, families say

A married couple and two toddlers were among the nine killed in the fiery crash.

Fathers of both the husband and wife confirmed their identities on Nov. 2 in brief interviews with the Palm Beach Post.

“It’s quite a blow,” said Dudley Sharp, 70, in Texas. “We had a daughter, her husband and two grandchildren on the plane.”

Sharp said his family is still gathering details about the crash that killed his 40-year-old daughter, Helen Sharp, her 45-year-old husband, Adam Robinson, and their young children. Robinson’s father, 77-year-old Theodore, confirmed his son’s identity but said authorities have not yet formally notified them of his passing.

Social media accounts for both the husband and wife suggest the two were entrepreneurs. One was a potter and the owner of a public relations company. The other was a software founder who posted to his LinkedIn shortly before the crash.

Expert says something ‘catastrophic’ caused loss of control

Aviation experts said a central question for investigators will be what led the flight crew to lose control of the aircraft.

“There’s some catastrophic thing that happened,” Robert Joslin, a professor in the department of aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told USA TODAY.

Joslin reviewed the air traffic control audio as well as videos and images of the crash. He said many factors may have contributed to the loss of control, including ice, which can limit a plane’s ability to lift, and turbulence, which can disrupt airflow into the engines and, in severe cases, cause structural damage.

Joslin highlighted the crew member’s report declaring an emergency and an “overspeed condition,” which means the plane is traveling faster than its maximum operating speed. Such speeds can lead to a wide array of system failures and damage, Joslin said.

He emphasized that the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Experts with the NTSB, he added, will pull maintenance records, survey the weather conditions at altitude, analyze any black box recordings that are recovered, and much more. “There’s a lot of information to be gathered,” he said.

Family identifies one pilot as Nathalia Filgueiras

Though the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office said it had not yet identified the nine people on board the plane, the mother of one of the pilots identified her as 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras, according to multiple reports.

Her mother, Camila Corteleti, said her daughter co-piloted the jet, had logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time and earned her pilot’s license at 17, the New York Times and the New York Post reported. She said her daughter worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Upper Jets offered condolences to everyone affected by the crash and said it is cooperating with local, state, and federal authorities.