About 600 People Need Shelter After the Learjet Crash Blocked Their Greenacres Neighborhood; About 100 Homes Are Evacuated
County Commissioner Joel Flores says roughly 100 homes near the Military Trail crash site have been evacuated and 400 to 600 people displaced, with the Red Cross caring for residents at the Greenacres Community Center and the county weighing hotel and bus vouchers.
The human toll of Sunday's Learjet crash widened on Monday beyond the nine people killed aboard the jet: about 100 homes near the crash site in Greenacres have been evacuated and between 400 and 600 people have been displaced, County Commissioner Joel Flores said, in the Palm Beach Post's live file. The Red Cross is coordinating efforts to care for them at the Greenacres Community Center, and Flores said the county is looking into providing hotel vouchers for displaced residents, as well as PalmTran bus vouchers for those whose cars were crushed by debris. CNN reported that about 600 people are in need of shelter because the damage on the ground is blocking the entrance to a mobile home park, and that residents are being sent to two shelters in the county while the site is investigated; officials had not yet determined the full scope of the damage.
New reporting Monday also filled in the jet's final minute. The Learjet 60, traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, plummeted 450 feet per second and fell 27,000 feet in one minute just before flight-tracking data cut off, CNN reported, citing ADS-B Exchange data. Before the crash, the pilot calmly reported ice accumulating on the aircraft, with an outside air temperature of -47 degrees Celsius, as well as moderate turbulence that bounced the plane by up to 700 feet, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net; moments later the pilot shouted a mayday and reported descending 20,000 feet per minute. Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, reviewing flight data and radar for the Post, said the storm the jet flew toward shot up 15,000 feet in 20 minutes and reached 48,300 feet tall by the time of the crash at 12:50 p.m., and that the first officer asked to climb from 35,000 feet to 37,000 feet about 20 seconds before the mayday call.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days and a final report that could take one to two years, CNN reported. Authorities have not identified the nine people who were killed, and no injuries were reported from the ground. This desk is publishing no victim name until officials release identifications.
