Palm Beach County Learjet Crash Kills All Nine on Board

All nine people aboard a business jet that crashed in South Florida on Sunday died, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed.

The Learjet 60, tail number N722BD, left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas bound for the Bahamas. It descended into a residential area in Palm Beach County at 12:50 p.m. local time.

Duffy described the incident as a horrific tragedy in a post on X. He stated that the Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board as it investigates the cause. Authorities had not yet identified the passengers or determined why the aircraft went down.

Witnesses in nearby vehicles recorded the plane plunging from the sky and striking the ground near a roadway. The impact created a large fireball and a crater in the pavement. Thick black smoke rose from the site as debris scattered around the area.

The crash site is located near Military Trail and 10th Avenue North. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office closed the roads in both directions and asked drivers to avoid the area. Emergency crews rushed to the scene to manage the fire and assess damage to nearby homes.

Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, confirmed the aircraft was private. He called the event a tragedy but could not provide details on who was flying. A woman working nearby reported that electricity in the area had been out for about two hours after the crash.

It was not immediately clear if the crash caused structural damage to the homes near the crash site. The investigation into the specific circumstances of the accident is ongoing.