NTSB's Thursday Update on the Austin Learjet: a Portion of One Engine Found in the Excavation, Debris on Roofs, and a Plea — Do Not Keep It
Four days after the Learjet 60 that left Austin-Bergstrom crashed in a Palm Beach County neighborhood, killing all nine aboard, investigators digging at the site have found a portion of one engine, the NTSB said Thursday — and wreckage is still turning up on the roofs of homes. The board's message to the neighborhood is simple: if you found a piece of this airplane, do not touch it. Call us.
The National Transportation Safety Board gave its latest update on Thursday, November 5, on the crash that has tied a Florida neighborhood to a Texas departure. The Learjet 60 took off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Sunday, November 1, bound for North Eleuthera in the Bahamas, and crashed at about 12:50 p.m. in a residential area near Cresthaven in Palm Beach County, Florida. All nine people aboard were killed. In the minutes before the crash, the jet had reported ice accumulating and jolting as much as 700 feet in turbulence, according to air traffic control audio captured by LiveATC.net and reviewed by reporters covering the investigation.
Thursday's new fact came from the ground. While doing excavation work at the crash site, investigators found 'a portion of one engine,' the board said. Officials have also found debris 'on the roofs of homes and buildings near the crash site,' as well as in areas farther away — consistent with what the board has said since Monday, that parts of the aircraft were found between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the impact site, including what investigators called a very significant piece of evidence showing that at least some pieces of the jet separated before it hit the ground. The board has not determined a cause, and Thursday's update does not claim one.
What the board did repeat, for the third time in five days, is its plea to anyone in the debris field. 'If you have found or collected any debris from the Learjet 60 crash, please do not keep it or attempt to move, alter or dispose of it,' the NTSB wrote. 'Even small pieces of the wreckage may contain important evidence that could help investigators determine what happened.' Requests to recover wreckage go to the board at witness@ntsb.gov, preferably with a photo of the debris. 'Recovering all available wreckage is critical to the investigation and helping to determine the cause of the crash,' the board said.
The nine who died were the jet's two pilots — pilot Jeff Gregory, 55, and co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras, 20 — and seven passengers who have since been identified: a family of four, parents Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp and their children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2; family friends Charmi Fehr and Rachael Reed; and the family's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina. The flight began in Texas, and the investigation now runs on two tracks at once: the laboratory work on what the excavation is turning up, and the search of a neighborhood's roofs and yards for the pieces of an airplane that came apart before it fell.
