The Palm Beach Learjet 60 crash: what is known

Nine people died when a Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday, November 1, 2026. Our condolences go to their families and friends, and to the neighborhood where it happened.

This page sets out what officials have said, what is still unknown, and how the investigation will proceed. It keeps three kinds of statement apart: what is confirmed in official documents, what the NTSB or FAA has said in statements and briefings, and what has been reported but not confirmed. It does not discuss possible causes, and it does not name the people or companies involved.

The short version

• Nine people died. A Learjet 60 flying from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas crashed in a residential area of Palm Beach County at about 12:50 p.m. local time (EST). Everyone aboard died.
• The NTSB leads the investigation. Its case number is ERA27MA026. The FAA is taking part, as it does by law in every NTSB investigation.
• No cause has been stated. An NTSB Board member said there was “some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact”. The NTSB determines probable cause only in its final report.
• Private flight or charter is not officially known. Neither the NTSB nor the FAA has said under which rules the flight was operated.
• Next: a preliminary report. The NTSB’s standard timing is within about 30 days, so around the start of December. A final report usually takes 12 to 24 months.

What happened?

A Learjet 60, registration N722BD, was flying from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) in Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera Airport (MYEH) in the Bahamas on Sunday, November 1, 2026. The NTSB says the flight “was lost from radar and radio contact while en route”. The FAA says it crashed in a residential area at around 12:50 p.m. local time. Daylight saving time had ended that morning, so local time was Eastern Standard Time.

What has been confirmed?

These points are stated on official pages, or by officials speaking for their agencies.

Fact	Source
Aircraft: Learjet 60, registration N722BD	FAA statement; NTSB investigation page; FAA aircraft registry
Route: Austin-Bergstrom (AUS), Texas, to North Eleuthera (MYEH), Bahamas	NTSB investigation page; FAA statement
Time: about 12:50 p.m. local time (EST), Sunday, November 1, 2026	FAA statement
Nine people aboard; all died	FAA statement (nine aboard); Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (all nine killed)
Investigation: NTSB case ERA27MA026, status “Ongoing”; the NTSB is in charge and “will provide all updates”	NTSB investigation page; FAA statement
Public docket: “has not been released”	NTSB docket page, checked November 2

The officials’ place names differ. The NTSB now lists the location as Greenacres, Florida; it earlier listed Lake Worth Beach. The FAA and Secretary Duffy describe it as near Cresthaven, a neighborhood in the same part of the county, and sheriff’s officials quoted by the Associated Press said Greenacres. News reports of the NTSB briefing place the site near Military Trail.

What have the NTSB and FAA said?

The NTSB held its first media briefing in West Palm Beach on Monday, November 2. The quotations below are as reported by news organisations that covered the briefing; the NTSB had not published a transcript when this page was last updated.

NTSB Board member Tom Chapman, the agency’s spokesperson at the scene, said:

“We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact.”

“We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site.”

He also said that all aboard were lost, that the nine were two crew members and seven passengers, and that “the weather conditions are a major focus of the investigation”. He described the crew’s last radio transmissions to air traffic control. The NTSB will publish the factual record of those in its preliminary report and the docket.

The NTSB’s investigator-in-charge, Timothy Monville, said investigators expected to spend several days on site, that the main wreckage is in an impact crater in a roadway, and that the debris field covers about half a mile by four-tenths of a mile. He said a man in a vehicle leaving the area next to the site suffered a leg injury. No deaths on the ground have been reported.

On the recorders, Chapman said maintenance records indicate a cockpit voice recorder was installed, but investigators did not yet know whether it was aboard on this flight or whether it can be recovered. No official statement on a flight data recorder had been made.

At the NTSB’s last on-site briefing, on Tuesday, November 3, Chapman said the majority of the left elevator, a movable part of the tail, had been found in three pieces between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the impact site, and that it was “implausible that it would have been a result of the impact”. The NTSB has not said whether the elevator’s separation caused the crash or resulted from it. Its update of November 5 said excavation had begun and part of one engine had been found. By its update of November 8, on-scene work was complete except for excavation of the impact crater, and recovered parts had gone to the NTSB’s laboratories in Washington, D.C. What the elevator finding means goes through it in detail.

The NTSB has asked anyone with information, photographs or video to email witness@ntsb.gov.

What is still unknown?

• The cause. The NTSB has not stated one, and does not determine probable cause at the scene.
• Whether the flight was private or a charter. Neither agency has said whether the flight was operated under the general operating rules (14 CFR Part 91) or as a paid charter under an air carrier certificate (Part 135). The FAA’s statement sits under the heading “General Aviation” on its statements page, which is not a determination of the operating rule. Part 91 vs Part 135 explains what the difference means in general.
• The identities of those aboard. Officials have not released them.
• The recorders. Whether the cockpit voice recorder was aboard and can be read, and whether a flight data recorder was fitted.

What has been reported but not confirmed?

News organisations have published air traffic control audio, accounts of the crew’s radio calls, estimates of the aircraft’s descent, the aircraft’s age and details of who owned and operated it. Some outlets have named the people aboard and companies they say were involved. None of that is an NTSB finding, and this page does not repeat it. Where the NTSB confirms any of it in its preliminary report, this page will say so, with the date.

What does “in-flight breakup” mean?

In general terms, an in-flight breakup means parts of an aircraft separate from it before it reaches the ground. That is a plain-English description rather than a formal definition: the NTSB uses the phrase in report titles but does not define it in a glossary we could find, and the international occurrence categories maintained by CAST and ICAO have no category of that name. It describes what happened to an aircraft, not why. Whether and why it happened here is for the NTSB to determine.

How does an NTSB investigation work?

The NTSB describes the same general sequence for every investigation: notification and the decision to investigate, fact gathering on site, analysis and determination of probable cause, a final report, and safety recommendations. It notes that the phases overlap.

1. The go team. An investigator-in-charge leads the team on site. On a major launch, a Board member travels with it as the official spokesperson, which is why Board member Chapman gave the briefing.
2. Parties. The FAA is a party to every investigation by law. The NTSB chooses any other parties, such as the aircraft manufacturer, for their technical knowledge. Under 49 CFR 831.11, no one else has a right to take part, and parties do not take part in the analysis or the writing of the report.
3. No blame. Under 49 CFR 831.4, NTSB investigations “are not conducted for the purpose of determining the rights, liabilities, or blame of any person or entity”.
4. Preliminary report. Factual information from the first phase, usually within about 30 days. It contains no probable cause.
5. Docket. The factual record, released before the final report. The NTSB says no conclusions about how or why an accident happened should be drawn from it.
6. Final report. The probable cause and any contributing factors, usually 12 to 24 months after the accident, in the NTSB’s words.

The timeline below marks where this investigation stands.

Where can you follow official updates?

• NTSB investigation page: ERA27MA026. The preliminary and final reports will be linked here.
• NTSB docket: ERA27MA026 docket, once released.
• NTSB on X: @NTSB_Newsroom, which posts briefing times and investigative updates.
• FAA statements: FAA accident and incident statements.

About the Learjet 60

Type facts only, from the type-certificate data sheet that EASA publishes for the FAA-certificated design.

	Learjet 60
Type certificated by the FAA	January 15, 1993
Description	Twin turbofan, engines mounted at the rear, low swept wing with winglets, T-tail
Engines	Two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW305A
Maximum occupants	10 (2 crew, 8 passengers)
Minimum flight crew	2 (pilot and copilot)
Maximum takeoff weight	22,750 lb (standard)

How this page is updated

This page will be updated when the NTSB publishes something new: a further briefing, the preliminary report, the opening of the docket and the final report. Each change is listed with its date and time under “What changed” below. Statements are attributed to the agency or official who made them. Until the NTSB publishes the preliminary report, the page will not add details from news reports unless officials confirm them.

For background on accident rates across private, charter and airline flying, see private jet accident statistics. The type’s earlier accidents, and the FAA directives that followed them, are in is the Learjet 60 safe?