Learjet crew's final transmissions: 'Holy f—k, we're out of time' before Florida crash kills 9

The last voice captured on air traffic control audio from the doomed Learjet 60 was screaming. 'Look outside — holy f—k, we're out of time!' someone in the cockpit shouted, seconds before the aircraft hit a Palm Beach County roadway almost vertically, killing all nine people aboard and leaving a smoldering crater in the earth.

The crash occurred at approximately 12:50 p.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, near the intersection of Military Trail and 10th Avenue North in the Greenacres and Cresthaven area. The Learjet 60, registration N722BD, had taken off from Austin–Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was heading to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas before plunging into a steep dive from an altitude of roughly 35,000 feet.

The ATC recording, captured by LiveATC.net, reveals how quickly the situation deteriorated. Initially, the pilot — described by the New York Post as female — gave a calm report to the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center of moderate turbulence and "light, clear ice that is manageable," with an outside air temperature of -47 degrees Celsius. The crew also requested a climb to 37,000 feet to find smoother air.

Within moments, the tone changed entirely.

722 Bravo Delta... we're descending 8,000 — Mayday, Mayday! We're descending 10,000 feet per minute.— Pilot, N722BD

The descent rate kept climbing. The pilot then reported an overspeed condition and a descent of 20,000 feet per minute, then 22,000 feet per minute, while banking at 60 degrees. According to the New York Post, the air traffic controller came back with: "November two bravo delta, I'm here with you, talk to me." It was not enough.

We're going to crash into the ground, 722 Bravo Delta.— Pilot, N722BD

Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange, cited by CNN, shows the jet plummeted 27,000 feet in one minute just before tracking was cut off. According to the FAA, the plane descended from 35,250 feet to 8,750 feet in one minute immediately before impact. Wikipedia, citing the FAA, puts the peak descent rate at over 30,000 feet per minute. The aircraft hit the ground almost vertically, disintegrated, and exploded into a fireball.

It was a cataclysmic plane crash. It looked like a missile going down.— Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida

One witness described the aftermath as looking 'like a meteor hit the ground,' according to Wikipedia. The impact severed power lines and underground water mains. About 600 residents of a nearby mobile home community were evacuated, with officials saying the road may take at least 30 days to reopen. John I. Leonard Community High School was closed the following day. No injuries on the ground were reported.

Weather is a central focus of the investigation. According to Wikipedia, the Palm Beach area was experiencing thunderstorms at the time, with visibility between two and ten miles and wind gusts of 20–30 mph. CNN reported that the plane passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before it began descending. Even in warm weather, thunderstorms generate powerful updrafts where temperatures can drop to as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit at cruising altitude. The NTSB published a safety alert in January 2024 warning that in-flight icing can cause pilots to lose control and prevent an aircraft from maintaining level flight.

The Learjet 60's aerodynamic design may have made the situation especially difficult to recover from. Aviation attorney and former NASA aerospace engineer Mike Slack told Wikipedia-cited outlets that when a Learjet loses control at altitude, it 'tends to go vertical and descend very fast,' unlike some aircraft that reach a terminal speed due to drag. Slack added: "Once all of that is disrupted and there's a stall event or a loss-of-control event, this airplane is going to go down vertically."

The 22-year-old aircraft was registered to LR60271 LLC, a Delaware-based corporation, and was listed as available for charter online, according to FAA records cited by CNN. The FAA and NTSB have dispatched investigation teams. CNN aviation analyst and former Department of Transportation inspector general Mary Schiavo said the steep descent made clear the crew had lost control: 'That is not a controlled descent.' She added that the flight data recorder may have been destroyed in the explosion, and it is unclear whether the plane carried a cockpit voice recorder.

Sunday's crash is the second deadliest plane crash in the United States this year, according to NTSB records cited by CNN, behind a June skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, that killed 12. According to the Flight Safety Foundation, no crash involving a Learjet 60 has claimed more lives than this one. The previous worst involved a Learjet 60 that crashed on takeoff from Columbia, South Carolina, in 2008, killing four people.

Why it matters — Nine people are dead and the cause remains unknown, with the ATC audio and flight data pointing investigators toward a rapid, possibly weather-related loss of control that the aircraft's own aerodynamic design may have made nearly impossible to recover from.

Sources differ on Peak descent rate: 27,000 feet in one minute (just before tracking cut off) (cnn.com) vs Over 30,000 feet per minute per FAA data (en.wikipedia.org) vs 22,000 feet per minute (pilot's own report in final transmission) (indiatoday.in)

Reported by wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, indiatoday.in, nypost.com, palmbeachpost.com, cnn.com