NTSB says crucial Learjet parts found up to 3.8 miles from Florida crash site

Crucial components of a private jet that crashed in Palm Beach, Florida, killing all nine people on board, were found between 1.3 miles (2km) and 3.8 miles from the crash site, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator said on Tuesday. NTSB board member Tom Chapman said investigators recovered "the majority" of the Learjet's left elevator, a control surface on the tail that governs the up-and-down movement of the plane's nose, in three pieces. Because the parts were "quite some distance away" from the site, investigators determined they fell off before the Sunday crash. "Knowing that it was lost is a very important piece of evidence in terms of pointing us towards other things to investigate," Chapman said. Officials are still working to establish whether losing the left elevator caused the plane to nosedive, or whether the part separated because forces on the aircraft tore it away. He added that the control surface may not have been "effective" at the speed the plane was travelling. The Learjet 60 was bound for the Bahamas from Austin, Texas, when it nosedived into a multi-lane highway and exploded on impact. In air traffic control recordings, someone in the cockpit can be heard reporting "moderate turbulence" and saying the crew was "managing the ice". The crew then reported that the plane was "picking up precipitation" and said "we need to climb". Moments later, the same voice said the aircraft was descending at a rate of 10,000ft (3,048m) per minute. An emergency was declared, and the pilots could be heard yelling that they were in an overspeed condition descending 20,000ft per minute, before saying they were going to crash into the ground. The NTSB plans to examine the role weather played in the crash. Officials have struggled to access the wreckage because of the huge crater the jet left on the road, and Chapman said the force of the impact severely damaged the debris. The seven passengers killed were named in a joint statement as tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, and their two children, Emma, four, and Charlie, two, along with family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and the family's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina. The pilot was identified in media reports as 55-year-old Jeffrey Gregory. Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, who earned her pilot's licence at 17, was reported to be the co-pilot.