Florida Learjet tragedy: Chilling details of plane's final plunge as all 9 victims are identified

The Learjet 60 departed Austin, Texas, carrying seven passengers and two crew members on a flight to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. But around 12.50 p.m. on November 1, the aircraft crashed into a roadway near Greenacres in Palm Beach County, Florida. All nine people aboard were killed. The first warning came as the jet cruised at approximately 35,000 feet. The crew reported light icing and moderate turbulence, with the aircraft experiencing altitude deviations of about 700 feet. After encountering precipitation, the pilots requested permission to climb to 37,000 feet. The situation deteriorated rapidly.

As the aircraft began losing altitude, 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras made emergency radio calls to air traffic controllers. Less than 30 seconds after the crew received permission to climb, the jet was descending rapidly. Filgueiras reported an emergency as the descent rate reached approximately 10,000 feet per minute, later describing an overspeed condition and a plunge of 20,000 feet per minute. The communications captured the crew's desperate struggle to regain control.

The Learjet slammed into a roadway near Greenacres with tremendous force, gouging a massive crater into the ground and scattering twisted wreckage across the crash site. The impact damaged the road surface and left scorched debris near surrounding properties. A person on the ground suffered a leg injury. Heavy rainfall subsequently filled part of the crater with water, complicating investigators' efforts to recover aircraft components.

The crash killed technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, reported to be 44 or 45, his wife Helen Sharp, 40, and their children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2. Also aboard were family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and the children's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina. The two pilots were captain Jeffrey Gregory, 55, and co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, who had earned her pilot's licence at just 17.

Federal investigators have uncovered preliminary evidence suggesting that parts of the aircraft separated before it hit the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board is examining weather conditions, aircraft systems and the debris field to reconstruct the final moments. Investigators are also trying to establish whether a cockpit voice recorder was aboard and can be recovered. No cause has been determined.