Updated November 9, 2026, 11:24 a.m. ET
The National Transportation Safety Board said it has recovered parts of the Learjet plane that plunged to the ground Nov. 1 and crashed in a South Florida community, killing all nine people on board.
Investigators located parts from the plane’s wings and engines, as well as the cockpit, vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, left elevator, aileron sections and flap track assemblies, the agency said Nov. 8. They sent the parts to the agency’s laboratories for further inspection.
The recovered parts could provide clues as to what went wrong.
The business jet, traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, crashed into the ground at more than 300 mph before exploding in a fireball near a mobile home neighborhood in Palm Beach County. Heavy rain and thunderstorms were moving through the area at the time.
In a haunting audio recording between the cockpit and air traffic controllers, the flight crew describes a rapid fall toward the ground in an out-of-control plane.
All those on board, a pilot, a co-pilot and seven passengers, including a family of four with two children, perished.
Debris dotted the area around the impact crater, forcing at least 600 people living nearby to evacuate.
Determining the cause of the accident will likely take time. The NTSB warned that the investigation would be complicated and lengthy, in part because of the near-total destruction of the plane.
Investigators described the recovery of the plane’s left elevator as “very important evidence” during a Nov. 3 news conference. The article, they said, indicated that the plane was breaking up before crashing to the ground.
They are urging community members who found debris to send photos to the NTSB.
“Please do not keep it or attempt to move, modify or dispose of it,” the agency said on November 8. “Recovering all available wreckage is essential to the investigation and helps determine the cause of the accident.”
Contributors: Christopher Cann and N’dea Yancey-Bragg
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