Horrible accident

What we know so far about the Learjet 60 private plane that crashed in Florida

The audio from the last two minutes is something I wish now I had not heard.

Chilling Audio Captures Final Moments Before Palm Beach Plane Crash

They flew into a thunderstorm. You can see them in the red area when the bottom fell out.

There aren't many - maybe any - aircraft, commercial or private, that could survive that sort of a flight through the middle of one.

Even ones that don't produce tornadoes are extremely dangerous weather phenomena. A building thunderstorm can get taller 3x or 4x as fast as most jets are capable of climbing when at altitude.

R.I.P.

This happened in the 1970s, to a DC-9 at a time when weather radars were much less sophisticated than they are today.



And to a Delta L1011 trying to land near one in Dallas.

From what I heard, the temperature was freezing (-24 C at 35k altitude), but was not a problem until they got precip flying through a storm cell.

Things went bad very fast after that.

Oldbear83 said:

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From what I heard, the temperature was freezing (-24 C at 35k altitude), but was not a problem until they got precip flying through a storm cell.

Things went bad very fast after that.

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It might have been ice accumulation, but I think it's just as likely that extreme turbulence/windshear/hail damaged or ripped off the horizontal stabilizer... Air warms at around 2 degrees C per thousand feet as you descend, and that's not including the heating of the skin of the aircraft by speed/airflow. I'm guessing they would have been out of icing conditions by 20,000 feet. -24C is actually quite warm for 35,000 feet.

Flying into that thunderstorm is a bit like taking a center console fishing boat out into the ocean in the middle of a hurricane.

Guess we'll find out from the NTSB.

But horrible for the people involved.

curious as to what avionics the plane had......

maybe some advanced pilots here would know more than me.

but - definably the tail / rudder came off.

- el UF

this time of year sees a definite uptick in air accidents.

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Investigators continue to work to "gather critical evidence" of what caused a Bahamas-bound Learjet to crash in Palm Beach County, Fla., on Nov. 1.

At a Nov. 3 National Transportation Safety Board press conference, spokesperson Tom Chapman called the investigation a "big puzzle to try to put together," with work at the impact site hampered by severe storms. The NTSB will be working with local public works teams this week to remove water from the crater caused by the plane's impact, where investigators expect to find airplane components that will help determine what went wrong.

Chapman had one notable development to share: The aircraft's left elevator a control surface on the tail that controls the up-and-down pitch of the plane was found in three pieces between about 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the crash site. Investigators believe it separated from the plane before impact. Chapman urged members of the public who find wreckage not to touch it and to call authorities.

Quote:

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Chapman had one notable development to share: The aircraft's left elevator a control surface on the tail that controls the up-and-down pitch of the plane was found in three pieces between about 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the crash site. Investigators believe it separated from the plane before impact.

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Figured that was the case.