Massive crater from Florida Learjet crash reveals how plane disintegrated after 20,000-foot plunge
Horrific new pictures show the scale of the damage caused by Sunday’s Learjet crash in Florida, with a huge crater in the highway and widespread debris clearly visible.
The aerial photos show how the plane nosedived just at the edge of a six-lane road, close to a mobile home park in Palm Beach County, killing all nine people on board.
The $2 million Learjet 60 hit the surface of the road at such high speed that it left a deep crater, seemingly severing a water main underneath and causing it to fill.
The plane’s speed at the point of impact left almost no large pieces of debris visible in the pictures.
Huge chunks of the asphalt were lifted up by the force of the crash.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The co-pilot has been named as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, a Palm Beach County native whose terrified voice can be heard in the haunting final cockpit audio.
