Fatal Plane Accident in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, on November 01, 2026

All nine people aboard a private Learjet 60 died when it crashed in a residential area of Lake Worth Beach in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, November 1, 2026, according to U.S. transportation officials.

The impact occurred beside a road near the entrance to a mobile home park. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said the crash left a large crater in that area. He also described an evacuation involving about 600 people, who were being relocated to two shelters within the county. The road near the impact site was not identified in the available information.

The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation into the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration identified the flight's departure point as Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and its planned destination as North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. The aircraft was a Learjet 60 manufactured by Bombardier, a Canadian company. FAA registration records listed a Delaware corporation as its owner.

Recorded communications with a Miami air traffic control center captured the cockpit's reports of changing conditions before the crash. The person speaking from the aircraft first requested smoother conditions, reporting moderate turbulence and efforts to manage ice. A distress call followed less than a minute after that request.

The cockpit initially reported a descent rate of 10,000 feet per minute. Seconds later, the reported rate increased to 20,000 feet per minute as the emergency was declared.

Less than 20 seconds after the emergency declaration, the speaker warned that the aircraft was going to strike the ground. As the jet began banking, the cockpit reported a descent rate of 22,000 feet per minute. The final audible cockpit message indicated there was no time remaining. That transmission came about 35 seconds after the first distress call.

Separately, flight-tracking data indicated that the vertical descent rate exceeded 32,000 feet per minute at one point. The cockpit figures reflected reports made during the radio exchanges, while the separate, higher figure was drawn from flight-tracking data.

Thunderstorms and heavy rain were reported in the area at the time of the crash. Those reports did not establish whether weather contributed to the aircraft's descent.

Video showed an explosion after the aircraft struck the ground beside the road. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis discussed the crash video at a news conference near the Lake Worth Beach site. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also described the loss of life as a tragedy.

Bombardier said it would support the investigation and cooperate as needed. The occupants' names and ages were not provided.

Publication note: Recovery processing for this article began on 2026-11-03. This article was added after the publishing interruption; its archive date, 2026-11-02, represents a missed daily publishing slot. The accident date above describes the incident itself.