Pilot’s haunting last words in South Florida plane crash
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
The haunting last words of the pilot killed when a business jet crashed in South Florida have been revealed.
All nine people onboard the Learjet 60 died when it nose-dived on Sunday and exploded into a fireball near Cresthaven – around nine miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
“We’re descending 8,000 – mayday, mayday,” the pilot radioed in audio obtained by Sky News. “We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute.
“We’re going to crash into the ground.”
Around 35 seconds after that initial Mayday call, the pilot said: “We’re out of time.”
The aircraft had left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was bound for the Bahamas.
Footage of the crash was recorded by witnesses, with several capturing the moment that the plane erupted into a huge fireball by the roadside.
At the scene, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the crash to reporters.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis said. “It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
DeSantis added that there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured in the crash.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has confirmed on social media that the Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to assist an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board into the crash.
The pilot had reported that ice had begun accumulating on the aircraft and noted an outside temperature of -47 degrees Celsius, according to CNN, which reviewed records on LiveATC.net. They plane experienced turbulence that bounced the pane by around 700 feet.
More follows.
