A business jet crashed in a neighbourhood in Florida on Sunday, killing all nine people on board, the US transport secretary has said.
The crash happened near Cresthaven, some nine miles (14 km) from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach County, around 12:50 EST (17:50 GMT).
Images show a large crater in the middle of a multi-lane road, with fire and debris from the Learjet 60 aircraft scattered across it, but nobody on the ground was hurt.
The aircraft had departed from Austin, Texas, and was headed to the Bahamas, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
Flight analysis indicates that the jet was plummeting hundreds of feet per second before crashing.
In air traffic control audio recorded moments before the crash, someone in the cockpit can be heard reporting “moderate turbulence” and that the crew was “managing the ice”.
The person can then be heard saying the plane was “picking up precipitation” and “we need to climb”. Moments later, the same voice said the plane was descending at a rate of 10,000ft (3,048m) per minute.
The crew member declared an emergency, yelling “we are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000ft per minute”, before saying, “we are going to crash into the ground”.
About 35 seconds after the initial mayday announcement, the last remark from the cockpit was “we’re out of time”.
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