Federal investigators have found a crucial component of the Learjet 60 that crashed in Florida, broken into three pieces and scattered as far as 3.8 miles from the main crash site in Palm Beach County. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified the recovered part as the left tail elevator, a significant piece of evidence for the ongoing investigation.
Thomas B. Chapman, an NTSB member, stated Tuesday that the debris's wide dispersal indicates it likely separated from the aircraft before the crash. Investigators will examine the elevator to determine if its failure contributed to the plane's descent or if the forces acting on the jet during its rapid loss of altitude tore it loose.
Former NTSB investigator Greg Feith suggested to Fox News that the scattered debris points to an in-flight breakup. He theorized that a pilot's attempt to level the aircraft may have overstressed its structure, leading to component failure. "One of the clues here is that there was an in-flight break-up and that a critical flight control, as the board member said, did come off in flight," Feith explained.
The Learjet 60 was en route to the Bahamas from Austin, Texas, when it crashed shortly before 1 p.m. on a Sunday. All nine people on board were killed. Among the victims were Austin tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their two young children, their nanny, and two other passengers. The pilot, Jeff Gregory, and co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras also died in the crash.
Weather conditions are being heavily scrutinized by investigators. The flight crew had reported encountering icing and moderate turbulence at approximately 35,000 feet shortly before the aircraft's rapid descent. The cockpit voice recorder has not yet been located, and investigators cannot confirm if it was functional or aboard the plane when it crashed.