Sad day for aviation in Florida, A 2003 Learjet 60 en route from Texas to the Bahamas crashed into a house here in Palm Beach County, about 30 miles south of us. The crash is reported (NY Post) to have occurred shortly after 1 pm, 1300 local or 18Z. Here’s the archived radar from November 1, 2026 at 18Z:
(The crash was just southwest of the W in “West Palm Beach.”)
Anecdotally, it has been rainy all day here.
There is some horrific ATC video that is so bad it sounds as though it might be AI:
If we believe the audio to be genuine, the plane was getting hit by some pretty bad turbulence (up and down at least 600′), consistent with being on top of or next to a thunderstorm. What’s confusing is that the pilot monitoring (a Learjet 60 is a two-pilot aircraft and, therefore, it is not the pilot flying who communicates with ATC) reports “we’re managing the ice” (i.e., the plane’s hot wings are preventing ice from accumulating) and also that the outside air temperature was -47C, We’re normally taught that icing tends to be prevalent when flying through heavy clouds at between 0 and -20C. The official government story is that icing can happen down to -40C.
An aviation friend sent me this, but I’m not sure what his source is:
Assuming no mechanical problems, what could have brought a Learjet down in these conditions? Turbulence can become so severe that a plane comes apart. Icing can become so severe, with supercooled liquid droplets, that it overwhelms even a fully certified flight-into-known-icing (FIKI) system. A tailplane stall is theoretically recoverable, but if not corrected will result in a nosedive. Ordinarily a plane’s wing’s pull up while the horizontal stabilizer of the tail pushes down. This is what gives a standard (non-canard) aircraft its stability. If the tail stalls, e.g., due to ice formation, the plane can pitch down. Partial failure of the anti-icing system, which depends on running compressed hot air from the engines (“bleed air”) into the wing and tail leading edges, can result in an uncontrollable bank and/or spin (on wing producing dramatically more lift than the other).
Anyway, a sad day. Based on a search, the plane was actually based here in South Florida at KFXE and, therefore, the pilots should have been more than familiar with thunderstorm hazards. So the crash is a mystery at this point, but almost surely the weather played an important role.
I have been a private pilot since the late 70s. I have been monitoring NTSB reports for decades and have seen and heard quite a lot of horrific videos and audio recordings. This was, by far, the worst. My guess, just a guess, is that the plane lost its stabilizer.
Usually these are highly accomplished, large egoed pilots in weather, declaring their frame of reference superior to the incompetent instruments. The instruments always win. The gootubers now all recommend avoiding weather unless it’s part 121.
My first thought was that it fits many of the characteristics of a tailplane stall.
It’s not always easy to figure out which is which, and the recovery technique for a tail stall is extremely counterintuitive for a properly trained fixed wing pilot: full aft elevator input in order to reduce AOA on the stalled airfoil.
Regarding the weather: things aren’t what they used to be. For decades I crisscrossed the country and never saw storm tops above FL450. Nowadays it’s not unheard of to see tops at FL650 or higher. Just astounding energy in a system that tall. I’ve seen plenty of that flying across Africa or other parts of the ITCZ, but not domestically. That part is new.
Non-plane expert here: why did they fly directly through what looks like horrendous weather instead of avoiding it? Pilot error?
That’s what I was just thinking. Was going to the Bahamas on a business jet so necessary that it couldn’t wait for better weather? I could understanding if it was the opposite way.
Rest in peace to those involved.
*understand
I listen to all the crashes on YouTube. This was a bad one but not the worst. I still have occasional nightmares about crashes because I am a Norfolk VA native and Navy jets crash here now and then with horrific stories. They fly over me from time to time, extremely powerful, the ground shakes and things are rattling on the plane, and in my room. We are also next to ORF but passenger jets are tame. Whatever they are flying out of the Navy bases in this area cause mini earthquakes. And they always sound like they are about to crash, things are rattling.
Here is the weird thing. Norfolk is loud AF, and my room literally vibrates and shakes. But most Norfolk residents never notice and have no idea what I am talking about. By the same token, when they deploy, it becomes blissfully quiet. And again, few notice.
I have had flightsim set up for days now. I have the Honeycomb rudder pedals and flight controls purchased and in my room. I am super interesting in learning to fly but never do it. Hard to explain but when you retire you will understand that you are more busy than ever LOL. (My still working friends laugh when I tell them my day.)
I’m a pilot, my Honda Jet is based at FXE and my TBM is based at PMP. I struggle to understand how they were crossing known turbulence so fast. I surmise that a gust of turbulence broke a control surface and they lost control because they were so fast. I don’t think that it’s reasonable to think that icing was the main issue. I think the -47C means icing was highly unlikely. It’s so sad. 😭
Don’t watch YouTube.