Investigators say bad weather is responsible for the Florida plane crash investigation

Nov 03 (Jowhar)- Investigators are closely monitoring the weather after a private plane crashed in a neighborhood in Palm Beach County over the weekend, killing all nine people on board.

Speaking at a press conference, Tom Chapman of the National Transportation Safety Board told reporters about the recent flight of the Learjet 60, which took off from Austin, Texas at 3:37pm Irish time on Sunday and was headed to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

Instead of reaching its destination, the plane crashed in a residential area in southern Florida. Everyone on board the aircraft died.

The plane was carrying a pilot, a co-pilot, and seven passengers. Officials have not released their identities, citing the need for genetic analysis.

U.S. media identified the co-pilot as Nathalia Gadelha Filgeiras, a 20-year-old who obtained her pilot's license when she was 17—before she received her driver's license.

Ms. Filgeiras logged approximately 1,300 flight hours and started working about nine months ago for a charter airline based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Investigators have stated that they have not yet identified who was in control when the aircraft encountered trouble.

An audio recording posted on the liveatc.net air traffic website captured a voice from the cockpit saying “medium distress” and that the control staff were “managing the ice.”

Minutes later, the spokesperson said the aircraft was "going down in rain" and needed to "climb" before issuing an emergency call:

"Mayday, Mayday, we are going down 10,000 feet per minute."

Mr. Chapman confirmed that the transmission was made to air traffic controllers.

The maintenance record shows that the aircraft previously had a cockpit recording device, but the NTSB does not know if it was installed at the time of the crash – or if it can be recovered – Mr. Chapman said.

NTSB investigator Tim Monville stated that one pilot near the crash site was also injured.

NTSB officials indicated that Aurora Aviation operated the aircraft under the name Upper Jets.

Company representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to Jettly, the Bombardier aircraft was commissioned in 2004 and underwent refurbishment in 2018.