NTSB investigates fatal Palm Beach Learjet 60 plane crash

Breaking news, as soon as we're ready, a private jet crash in South Florida. I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen this on social media. I want to bring you out live to a press conference. Listen. Seconds later, a transmission from the airplane announced the descent, followed by a Mayday call. About 1248 Eastern, the airplane transmitted, we are in an overspeed condition, descending, with the rest unintelligible. Subsequent communications described that the airplane was descending rapidly and gave an altitude call out. Sadly, all aboard were lost. Our investigator in charge is with me here. His name is Timothy Monville. I'm going to invite Tim to speak about the structure and process of the investigation. Mr. President, thank you very much. Mr. Monville is a senior investigator at NTSB with nearly 40 years of experience, and he's leading a multidisciplinary team of experts. Tim? I'm Rick Chapman. Thank you. So, as the NTSB investigator in charge, I arrived yesterday evening about 7 p.m., immediately consulted with local law enforcement to identify the scope of the accident site. As well as to identify outlying parts. From that initial interaction, Thank you. I came up with an investigative plan to document the parks that are known away from the main impact site. Thank you. And the investigative team for NTSB includes a drone pilot, a systems and structure specialist, recorder specialist, And specialists from Transportation Disaster Assistance, IT, Public Affairs, Media, and Communications. Additional personnel assisting NTSB include the Federal Aviation Administration, Thank you very much. representatives of the airframe manufacturer Learjet, Inc., and possibly the operator of the aircraft. In addition to the NTSB specialists away from the site include weather experts and air traffic control experts. We've just begun our documentation. We have a lot of work to do on scene. This will be a several-day process, and the biggest obstacle that we're going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway. Remember, Thank you, Tim. We are grateful to the many agencies who responded to this tragedy. Too many to list today. Their efforts are very much appreciated. I want to especially thank the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office for their assistance and also to Palm Beach County for their assistance and for hosting us here today. NTSB will be interviewing individuals who witnessed the accident. We encourage witnesses or those with information relevant to the investigation, such as videos or photographs, to contact the NTSB by email at witness at ntsb.gov. And let me repeat that email address. It's witness at ntsb.gov. I want to note that if members of the community find debris, please do not move it. Contact us or local authorities and we will respond appropriately. In addition to our investigators, we have specialists from our Office of Transportation Disaster Assistance on scene. They will be working closely with the families and local agencies to provide support to those involved. Our investigators will work to thoroughly document relevant evidence and gather additional factual information. Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, and to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again. We will not be determining the probable cause of the crash while we're here on scene, nor will we speculate about the cause. These are the first steps in a lengthy investigatory process. Once again, I want to extend our condolences to the families and we are very grateful to the first responders for their efforts. With that, I'll take your questions. If I call on you, please provide your name and also your media affiliation. Yes, ma'am. Kate Hussey with WPTV News. You mentioned the ice and the turbulence and I know you're not speculating here, but at this point, are you investigating whether or not that played a factor in the crash? That's certainly a factor. Absolutely. Yes, sir? Jesse Kirsch with NBC News. Thanks for doing this. When you talk about weather challenges, generally and certainly the types of challenges that were radioed in from the crew, what is the responsibility, how much of the responsibility dealing with those weather challenges falls on the crew versus the air traffic controllers helping them from the ground? Well, that's one of the factual details of how this transpired is exactly what we're trying to determine. And that's one of the questions that will have to be sorted out in this In terms of... Who knew what and when and what actions were taken and whether those actions were appropriate. Yes, sir? John Gordon, John Fredericks, Navy Network. Thank you. I, too, would like to express my condolences. As a 60-year member of the general aviation community, this strikes us all very hard. Can I ask you, and I'm not playing Monday morning quarterback at all, But the turn direct to Freeport, was that issued by ATC or was that a pilot decision before entering the fatal cell? Tim, I don't have details on that, do you? This may be too early for us to be. I mean, that gets into the realm of speculation. It is, Member Chapman. Again, we've looked and listened to initial audio, but we have not gotten to that level that we can answer that question specifically and factually. I, too, listened to the audio, and it was not clear to me at all whether it was ATC or our pilots. Were they proceeding on a clearance that they earlier had gotten? I think we're still determining that. It's still, we're in the very early stages here of the investigation. One last question, if I may. Are you at all surprised by the wallet that that relatively small cell appeared to contain? In my experience as a jet pilot, the next you had was depicting it as red, not dark red or purple. I don't think that I would have been terribly reluctant to have flown through that. Well, the weather conditions are a major focus of the investigation. You all saw what the weather was like here at the surface. What we have to determine is what the weather conditions were like at altitude. They were at about 35,000 feet, and that's still something that has to be determined. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. They may have. We do have some evidence that there was some breakup of the aircraft before impact. We're still seeking to determine that. Yes, ma'am. Terry Parker, WPTV 25. Do you think that given the impact of this crash that the black box will be intact and that you will be able to retrieve some of this very valuable information from it? It's a two-part question. First, was there a black box? Our indication early here from... Aircraft maintenance records is that a cockpit voice recorder was installed on this aircraft. What we don't know is whether that recorder was still on board. Sometimes these things change over time. So we're still seeking to determine whether there was a recorder. And then, of course, we're very hopeful that we can recover it. Too early to know, but that will be very important data. Without it, will you be somewhat stymied in this investigation? Well, we'll be better off with it. Without it, our folks are very, very good. We're still able to do some incredible detective work and determine how things transpired. Yes, sir? I want to ask you about the audio that we've heard. It's a female voice we know now to be a 20-year-old co-pilot. And a lot of speculation on social media, even the NASA administrator speaking out seemingly in her defense because of some speculation out there. What can you tell us right now that you know about what, with what you know right now, what would the role of the co-pilot on the audio recording have been in the midst of all this? Would she have been at the controls or simply relying on communication? We don't yet know that, and that is one of the things that we'll seek to determine. Yes, sir, in the back. Thank you very much for the local time. Ethan, with Channel 9, the weather at the surface, what challenges will that create in your investigation at this point? Well, I know Tim was saying one of the problems right now is that the crater, there's water in the crater. So some of this is just the logistics of being able to access the wreckage. So there will definitely be some challenges involving the weather. And, of course, we don't know what the weather is going to be like over the next couple of days. I'm from Washington. I know you all live here locally. I'm told that the weather has been pretty crazy here lately, so that's something we're going to be concerned about. Yes, sir? Roy Ramos with Local 10 News. When the pilot was making transmissions about gathering precipitation, is the right maneuver to climb to 40,000 feet as they requested? That is a maneuver. I don't know that I would describe it as the right maneuver, but it's certainly one of the possible maneuvers, yes. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Lauren Huffington, Miami Herald. Were planes cleared to take off from airports nearby at the time of the crash? I don't know that, Tim. I think we're still seeking to determine what the circumstances were at the local airports. I don't know how much of a factor that would be because this aircraft was en route, but that's one of the things we'll look at. And do you know if the Learjets are prone to these types of accidents? I don't believe we have any indication that there's a history of this type of accident with this model of aircraft, Tim. No, I have no personal knowledge. That could be statistically documented within our agency, but at this moment, I don't have any information about that. We'll certainly look for trends not only with this model of aircraft. I'm not aware of any right now, but we'll look at that, but also with this specific aircraft, too, whether there's any. Any history? Yes, ma'am. Hi, I'm Sean Ward with Fox News. How big is the debris field, and were there any injuries at all on the ground? Tim, I'm going to let you take that one. Okay. So there was a gentleman, I understand, I've learned today that he was in a vehicle that was leaving. The immediately adjacent impacted area, and he sustained a leg injury. He was going to be interviewed today and understand the extent of his injuries. That's all I've been made aware of in terms of injuries. And I'm sorry, the other part of the question. I have a question. I'm getting conflicting information. It's half mile by four-tenths of a mile, right? But it's scattered among ball fields, businesses. Personal residences and the debris is rather small. Dan, as I indicated, we do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact, and so some of this is yet to be determined. We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site. Have you all been able to find? I don't think we're far enough along here to know what we found. We're finding debris, but we haven't identified parts yet. Yes, sir? Chris, I'm going to be the CBS news. I'm wondering, can you explain what you guys hold is salvageable, It's salvageable. given the impact of the crash? Well... That's going to be a real challenge, and I think you've seen the video. That is going to be a real challenge, and Tim, I know that you and your team, that's one of the things that's going to be daunting. Ben, do you know anything about the speed? That the aircraft was going before it hit the ground? Not yet. High rate of speed, obviously, but not yet in terms of any kind of precise numbers. For the people that have been displaced in that area, do you have any message for them, and how long will they not be allowed to go back to their homes? We're working to do the work that we need. To do, to complete, in order to ensure that access can be opened up there as quickly as we possibly can. I don't want to try to speculate on the time frame, because some of this, again, is we've just got logistical problems with, you know, the weather and the, but we understand the challenges for those folks, and we want to do our work as quickly as we can so that the access to the neighborhood can be reestablished. Last question. Captain, Steve Arroyo, Aviation News Updates. Can you confirm that the aircraft actually flew through an active thunderstorm? We can't confirm that yet, but obviously that's something that we're going to try to determine. Thank you all very much, we appreciate your interest. Jet that Learjet. Now, there are a couple of key takeaways that we heard from them. This they say it's too early to know a lot of the information that they're trying to piece together. They do say weather, including icing, was likely a factor here. They're also saying that there were some indicators that the aircraft was breaking apart as it was still airborne. You're looking live or I'm sorry, you're looking at video of those. That fiery crash after it, again, killing all nine people on board. The NTSB offering that update just a short time ago. Again, they say it's too early right now. They're asking for any witnesses that haven't come forward in that area who saw this plane go down. They want to talk to them. So that was that NTSB news conference just a moment ago. We're, of course, going to stay on top of that one. Absolutely horrifying story. But for now, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.