A business jet with nine people on board has nose-dived into a South Florida neighbourhood, erupting into a giant fireball and narrowly missing homes before crashing near a busy road.
Everyone on board was killed, the US transportation secretary said.
Video recorded by people inside their cars captured the terrifying moment the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunged from the sky before striking near the Palm Beach County roadway and exploding.
Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining a crater as people milled about, expressing shock that it landed so close to homes and passing cars, in a neighbourhood not far from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County around lunch time on Sunday, calling it a “horrific tragedy".
The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground being injured or killed.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters at the scene.
“It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane was at 35,000 feet when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb another 2,000 feet.
Moments later, the plane entered a steep dive, first 10,000 feet per minute, then 20,000 feet per minute and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding the plane beyond its design limits, according to air traffic control recordings and flight tracking data.
The pilot declared an emergency, issued distress calls then banked sharply to the right before crashing.
Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was jolting it by as much as 700 feet, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net.
The situation rapidly deteriorated, with the pilot declaring an emergency.
“Mayday, mayday - we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot said before delivering a devastating acknowledgement of what was about to happen.
“We’re going to crash into the ground.”
