Federal investigators said Monday that weather conditions are a “major focus” of their investigation into the fiery private jet crash that killed nine people in South Florida.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Tom Chapman said investigators have preliminary indications that the Learjet 60 was breaking apart before it crashed in a Palm Beach County neighborhood Sunday afternoon.
“We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact,” Chapman said during a Monday news conference. “And so, some of this has yet to be determined. We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site.”
Chapman said investigators are also examining the weather conditions the jet encountered at approximately 35,000 feet, where the crew reported icing and moderate turbulence shortly before the crash.
“The weather conditions are a major focus of the investigation,” Chapman said. “You all saw what the weather was like here at the surface. What we have to determine is what the weather conditions were like at altitude.”
The aircraft departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas around 10:37 a.m. Sunday, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas with two crew members and seven passengers aboard, according to the NTSB.
At approximately 12:47 p.m., the crew reported encountering manageable light clear ice and moderate turbulence, with altitude deviations of roughly 700 feet while flying at 35,000 feet.
The crew also reported an outside temperature of minus 47 degrees Celsius, or minus 53 degrees Fahrenheit, before requesting permission to climb to 37,000 feet after encountering precipitation.
Air traffic control approved the request, but less than 30 seconds later, the crew reported descending and issued a mayday call around 12:48 p.m.
“We are in an overspeed condition, descending,” the crew transmitted, according to Chapman, who said the remainder of the message was unintelligible.
Subsequent communications indicated the jet was rapidly losing altitude before it crashed into a residential area near Cresthaven, Florida, around 12:50 p.m., killing all nine people aboard.
NTSB investigator-in-charge Timothy Manville said the on-scene investigation will take several days, with recovering the wreckage from a crater in the roadway posing a significant challenge.
“The biggest obstacle that we’re going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway,” Manville said.
Dashcam footage captured the jet plunging nose-first into the neighborhood and erupting into a massive fireball, as Fox News Digital previously reported.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described the crash as “cataclysmic” Sunday, saying the aircraft “looked like a missile going down” and left a large crater beside the road.
The crash also prompted the evacuation of approximately 600 people from a nearby mobile home community, according to local officials.
The FAA is assisting the NTSB investigation. The cause of the crash has not been determined.