Authorities are investigating after a plane with nine people on board crashed into a residential area before bursting into a fireball in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane was a Learjet 60 flying to the Bahamas from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, according to the FAA. It’s registered with an LLC in Delaware, according to FAA records, and is listed as available for rental online.
Information on the condition of the passengers has not yet been released.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident, the FAA said.
The crash happened near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The plane descended 27,000 feet in one minute, just before flight tracking data was interrupted, according to the ADS-B Exchange website.
The crash site is about four miles south of the West Palm Beach Airport, which was renamed in honor of President Donald Trump earlier this year. Trump was in West Palm Beach earlier in the day, but left the airport on Air Force One a little more than an hour before this crash.
There were scattered storms in the area at the time of the accident, and the plane passed through a stronger storm cell minutes before beginning its descent. It is unclear whether the storm contributed to the accident.
All northbound and southbound lanes of Military Trail are closed until further notice, officials said, and motorists are advised to avoid the area and seek alternate routes.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Gn headline
