On Sunday, November 1, a private Learjet 60 flying from Austin to the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida. All nine people on board died, including the family of entrepreneur Adam Robinson and their two young children.
According to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the plane crashed at 12:50 local time in a residential area near Cresthaven. The aircraft had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom Airport in Texas and was heading to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Duffy called the event a “horrendous tragedy”.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, as reported by the AP news agency, that there was no information about casualties on the ground. According to ABC News, hundreds of people were evacuated from 77 mobile homes near the crash site.
Who died
The families of the victims issued a joint statement. It named seven passengers: Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their children – 4-year-old Emma and 2-year-old Charlie – as well as Rachael Reed, Charmi Fehr and Anita Maria Cetina. According to the families, as quoted by KTLA, Cetina was the children’s nanny. The other two people were the pilots.
Robinson was a technology entrepreneur associated with Austin, and Sharp – as KUT reports – was the chief executive and co-founder of the PR firm Influential PR. The families called them “devoted parents” and the children “the light of their lives”. According to CBC, the family lived in Aspen, Colorado. The families also identified the 20-year-old second pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, who conducted the final communications with air traffic control. Media reports about Robinson’s wealth (“millionaire”) do not come from an official source.
What the NTSB has found
The investigation is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), assisted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). About 20 investigators are working at the site. At Monday’s press conference, NTSB board member Tom Chapman said the plane had likely begun to break apart before hitting the ground, and that debris was scattered far from the crash site. Weather will be one of the main lines of inquiry.
According to the NTSB, as quoted by ABC News, shortly before the crash the crew reported “moderate turbulence” and “light icing”, assessing the situation as manageable. Fox News also writes about a reported exceedance of the permissible speed. Radar showed strong storms over southern Florida. The NTSB will also examine the crew’s actions and any possible technical faults. The aircraft was operated by Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jets.
What it means
The cause of the crash has not been determined. The NTSB has said the investigation will take several days, while a final report usually takes many months. This case does not directly concern Poles, as there is no information about Polish citizens among the victims. It is another recent crash of a private jet; we wrote about the crash of a Gulfstream in the Dominican Republic in June.
