Fiery Jet Crash In Florida Kills 9 After Falling 20,000 Feet Per Minute Before Impact

Just seconds after the co-pilot of flight N722BD sent its Mayday final transmission on Sunday afternoon, the private Learjet 60 crashed in a fiery explosion, killing all 9 people on board and raining debris across a South Florida community. As of Monday, authorities are still in the early stages of the investigation, which could take several days to collect wreckage from the fallen aircraft, according to AP News.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the business jet took off from Austin, Texas, and was heading towards the Bahamas when it hit the ground in the Palm Beach County neighborhood of Green Acres, near West Palm Beach. Just minutes before the crash, the co-pilot, 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras, reported encountering weather causing icing and "moderate turbulence." They asked to ascend to 37,000 feet, which was approved by Air Traffic Control. The plane then began descending quickly, with the co-pilot informing controllers, "We're descending 8,000 — Mayday, Mayday — we're descending 10,000 feet per minute.

One pilot has been identified as of this writing. Filgueiras was a Boca Raton resident who achieved her dream of a pilot's license while still in high school and had 1,300 hours of flying time under her belt. She was the one who made the final emergency calls as the jet went down. Another pilot was aboard the flight as well. It is unclear at this time who was at the controls of the jet when the crash occurred. All nine fatalities were passengers onboard the plane. 

During a news conference Monday the NTSB officials said the crash created a debris field  approximately a half mile by four-tenths of a mile, but it may be larger as there is evidence that shows the plane was likely breaking up prior to impact. They've asked members of the community who find debris to not move it and contact NTSB or local authorities to handle it. Officials also said that weather conditions are being considered as a major factor in the events that unfolded Sunday afternoon. More updates are expected to come in the following days.

In the plane's final transmissions, the plane was flying at an altitude of nearly 9,000 feet. The plane then nosedived, falling at 32,000 feet per minute according to CBS News, however, the NTSB said those numbers have not yet been determined or confirmed. Dashcam footage shared with multiple news outlets caught the moment of impact from the back of a moving vehicle on a divided motorway. Another dashcam video obtained by KCEN 6 News, showed the plane falling out of the sky some distance ahead of the vehicle before impact. 

Witnesses to the crash told CBS News it sounded like a bomb went off when the jet hit the ground. Stephanie Platts, a resident at a neighboring mobile home community park, told The New York Times she was on her patio with her family when the plane hit, which sounded like a car crash. Her home caught fire from some of the raining debris.

 "Everything was engulfed in flames," she said.

Palm Beach County authorities were called to the scene where it was eventually confirmed that all nine passengers on board the business jet had died. Only one individual may have sustained injuries from the crash, who was adjacent to the scene, but officials have yet to confirm that injury.

This crash comes just months after an Amazon Air cargo plane killed five people after landing  late on a Miami runway. Weeks later, a small yellow airplane narrowly missed hitting a postal van while making an emergency landing on an Illinois highway, leaving no crashes or injuries behind.