A female crew member aboard a doomed Learjet 60 screamed “Holy f–k we’re out of time” in her final transmission before the business jet slammed into a Florida mobile home park, killing all nine people on board.
The Learjet 60, registered to LR60271 LLC in Wilmington, Delaware, was en route from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas when it crashed about 1 p.m. Sunday. The aircraft, valued at roughly $2 million, went down in the Greenacres mobile home community roughly nine miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach County.
Air traffic control audio captured the aircraft’s catastrophic final minutes. Just before the crash, the pilot had reported moderate turbulence and “light, clear ice that is manageable” to the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center.
The situation deteriorated with terrifying speed. The pilot radioed a chilling “mayday” message to the controller.
“We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot said. She continued, escalating: “We are in an overspeed condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute.”
The pilot then delivered the devastating assessment: “We’re going to crash into the ground,” she said, letting out a chilling scream.
The controller tried to maintain contact with the stricken aircraft. “November two bravo delta, I’m here with you, talk to me,” the controller replied.
The crew member responded with the aircraft’s final known position before her haunting last words. “We are descending 22,000 feet, and we are banking, 60 degrees … look outside,” the crew member replied.
Shocking videos captured the plane nosediving into the ground, triggering an enormous fireball that left behind a crater in the earth. The crash was so loud that witnesses said “it sounded like a missile,” according to Aviation 24/7.
The aircraft clipped a tree and brought down power lines as it plummeted. The wreckage of the jet and a mobile home were visible in the horrific scene.
Greenacres is a community for modular and mobile homes just outside Palm Springs. The crash site sits four miles south of an airport in West Palm Beach, where Trump departed more than an hour before the fiery crash.
Authorities said there are “multiple fatalities” and have not yet confirmed how many people, including those on the ground, were killed or injured.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the crash as “cataclysmic” as search efforts for debris continued.