Cockpit Recorder Recovered in Florida Learjet Crash
NTSB recovers cockpit voice recorder from deadly Learjet crash in Florida, seeking answers on pilot actions and storm conditions.
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Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the deadly Learjet crash that killed all nine people onboard in Florida, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The recorder was found at the crash site and is being evaluated in the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The NTSB confirmed that excavation work at the impact site has been completed.
The NTSB is expected to issue a preliminary report on the crash in December. NTSB member Tom Chapman noted that the investigation will focus on how the pilots and air-traffic controllers determined the plane would fly into thunderstorms that were in the area at the time of the crash. “The factual details of how this transpired is exactly what we’re trying to determine,” Chapman said. “Who knew what and when and what actions were taken and whether those actions were appropriate.” The agency aims to complete full investigations within one to two years of a crash.
The private jet, piloted by Jeff Gregory, 55, and Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was en route from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to the Bahamas when it encountered severe weather. Previously released air traffic control audio revealed the pilots were battling turbulence and “light, clear ice.” Filgueiras asked air traffic controllers if there was a better route in the area and requested permission to climb. Over the course of a one-minute recording, the situation rapidly deteriorated, with Filgueiras issuing a mayday call and reporting a descent rate of 20,000 feet per minute.
Video footage from a nearby dash cam showed the private jet hitting the ground nose-first before exploding into a fireball and leaving a massive crater. Witnesses nearby described the crash as “like a missile.” DeWitt Ingram, a Learjet type-rated captain, suggested that severe turbulence inside a thunderstorm could have damaged the aircraft and caused the pilots to lose control. “If the pilot flew into the tops of one of the thunderstorms, in that very rough air, he could have damaged the airplane to the point where he lost control,” Ingram said.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former top U.S. aircraft accident investigator, noted that the plane entered a powerful, isolated thunderstorm that reached high altitudes. “Typically, these business jets can fly over the weather. But in this case, this weather was building up so much that it was reaching some very high altitudes,” Guzzetti said. The flight was carrying Gregory, Filgueiras, tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, their two young children, the family’s nanny Anita Maria Cetina, and the couple’s friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr. All nine passengers and crew members died in the crash.
Source: Daily Wire
