PALM BEACH, Florida.- Nine people were killed on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when a private jet, a Learjet 60 flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, plunged nose-first into Military Trail, a busy road in a residential area of Palm Beach County, Florida, and exploded in a fireball, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local authorities. Among the dead, identified by family members and local media, are tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 44, his wife Helen Sharp and their two children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2. No one on the ground was killed, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating what brought the jet down.
The aircraft, operated by Aurora Aviation under the name Upper Jets, took off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 10:37 a.m. Eastern time bound for North Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, and crashed shortly before 1:00 p.m. near Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, in the Greenacres area, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said. Video recorded from a passing car shows the jet falling almost vertically before slamming into the road and erupting in flames, leaving a deep crater just feet from homes and businesses. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called it a "cataclysmic plane crash" and said the jet dived "like a missile". About 600 residents needed shelter because the wreckage blocked the entrance to a mobile home park, county commissioner Joel Flores said.
The aircraft that crashed: the Learjet 60, registration N722BD, photographed in Sint Maarten before the accident. Photo: Mike Illien, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Ice, a storm and a fall of 27,000 feet in one minute
Minutes before the crash, the crew reported ice building up on the aircraft, an outside temperature of -47 degrees Celsius and moderate turbulence that was bouncing the jet by up to 700 feet, according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net. Tracking data from ADS-B Exchange shows the Learjet descended some 27,000 feet in about one minute before the signal cut off, and Flightradar24 recorded a vertical descent rate that at one point exceeded 32,000 feet per minute. In the final radio calls, co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, shouted "mayday, mayday" while pilot Jeff Gregory, 55, could be heard reciting the Lord's Prayer.
At a briefing on Monday, NTSB investigator Tom Chapman said weather is a "major" focus of the investigation: the jet was flown through an area of especially active storm cells, and images of the fall appear to show the aircraft had lost key parts of its tail, a sign of a loss of control. Authorities have not yet officially released the names of all nine victims, saying genetic analysis is needed, and the cause of the crash has not been determined. One person on the ground suffered a minor injury.
The victims: a tech founder, his family and a 20-year-old co-pilot
Adam Robinson founded three software companies: Robly, an email marketing business he sold in 2021 for $10 million, Retention.com and RB2B, and lived in Austin with his family; they were travelling to Eleuthera with their children's nanny, according to The Palm Beach Post. Co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, from Boca Raton, earned her pilot's licence at 17 while still in high school, logged more than 1,300 flight hours and worked as a certified flight instructor in Fort Lauderdale as well as for Upper Jets. The charter company said it is cooperating with authorities and offered condolences to everyone affected.
The crash is the second deadliest in the United States this year, according to NTSB records, after 12 people died in June when a skydiving plane crashed in Butler, Missouri, and the deadliest ever involving a Learjet 60, according to Flight Safety Foundation data. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called it a "horrific tragedy".
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Fuentes: CNN, The Times, El País, People, NTSB y FAA, 1 a 3 de noviembre de 2026. Foto de portada: el lugar real del accidente en Military Trail, condado de Palm Beach (Wikimedia Commons, CC0).