‘Mayday, mayday.’ A flight from Texas to the Bahamas ended in tragedy. What investigators are examining

(CNN) — It took about 90 seconds for a routine report of ice and turbulence to be replaced by a desperate “Mayday, mayday!” and then silence, as a private jet plunged more than 27,000 feet over the course of one minute toward a Florida roadway.

Inside, a pilot and promising young co-pilot desperately tried to avert disaster for all on board, including a couple with two young children, a family caregiver and two others – all en route from Texas to the Bahamas.

“We’re gonna crash into the ground!” copilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras cried out to air traffic controllers.

Before the plane struck the ground, killing all nine inside, the pilot sent a final transmission.

“We’re out of time.”

The jet slammed nose-first like a missile into a busy Palm Beach County road, before erupting into flames and sending thick black smoke into the sky, dashcam video shows. Bystander video showed a fiery crater gouged into Military Trail, a major highway, with the pavement buckled and shattered around the wreckage.

Residents of a nearby mobile home park ran outside to see what caused the explosion that rattled their homes.

“I heard and felt the boom,” said Andrew Mannino, a Palm Beach County resident. “The power immediately went out.” Then came the smell of smoke, he said, and a large black cloud rising into the sky.

Investigators are now working to determine what caused the aircraft, a Learjet 60, to plunge from about 35,000 feet.

While authorities have yet to identify those on board, their families have named eight of the nine victims as tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp, as well as their two children, Emma and Charlie; caretaker Anita Maria Cetina; Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr. Filgueiras was also killed. The other pilot has not been identified.

Here’s what we know about the crash and the final moments of those on board.

A sudden ‘mayday!’

The passengers of the Learjet 60 were traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas on Sunday, a route that took them over South Florida.

Scattered storms were passing through the area at the time of the crash, and the plane passed through a strong cell just before it began suddenly descending.

Though it is unclear if the storm contributed to the crash, federal investigators have said it will be part of their investigation.

Minutes before the crash, Filgueiras, the pilot speaking to air traffic control, reported ice accumulating on the aircraft, an outside air temperature of -47 degrees Celsius (-53 degrees Fahrenheit), and moderate turbulence, bouncing the plane by up to 700 feet, according to a recording of radio calls captured by LiveATC.net.

“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” Filgueiras radioed the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center.

But moments later, after reporting precipitation and requesting to climb, she declared an emergency.

“Mayday, mayday!” Filgueiras said.

“We’re descending 10,000 feet per minute!” she told air traffic controllers.

“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” Filgueiras cried. “We’re going to crash into the ground!”

Ultimately, the jet plunged 27,000 feet in one minute, before flight tracking data was cut off, the website ADS-B Exchange shows.

The plane crashed just before 1 p.m. on Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday that one person on the ground sustained a leg injury. Officials initially said no injuries were reported on the ground.

The crash is the second deadliest in the United States this year, according to NTSB records, following June’s skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, which killed 12. It is also the deadliest crash involving a Learjet 60, according to data from the Flight Safety Foundation.

Devoted parents, children and caregiver among the dead

Robinson, Sharp, and their two children, Emma and Charlie, were identified by family members as being victims, according to a family statement.

Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, “were the light of their lives,” the statement said.

“Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever. Their warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome touched so many lives,” the statement reads. “Their loss will be felt deeply by all those who loved them and who they loved in return.”

The couple split their time between Aspen, Colorado, and Austin. Robinson was a tech entrepreneur who co-founded Retention.com, an e-commerce data company. Sharp had worked in public relations and was also a gifted ceramics artist who created minimalistic vases and softly sloping bowls.

“It’s quite a blow,” Dudley Sharp, Helen Sharp’s father, told The Palm Beach Post by phone on Monday. “We had a daughter, her husband and two grandchildren on the plane.”

Traveling with them on the plane was Anita Maria Cetina, who was identified in the family’s statement as the children’s caretaker.

“Anita Maria cared for Emma and Charlie with tenderness and devotion, and she was truly part of the family,” the statement said, adding she leaves a “legacy of unconditional love and devotion.”

Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, two people “full of joy and adventure” were also on board, the family statement said.

“From the moment they met, (Reed and Fehr) were all in on each other and the life they were building,” the statement said.

Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, the young co-pilot, was just 20 years old, her family told CNN Brasil.

“She was a very good girl – responsible, hardworking,” her mother, Camila Gadelha Corteleti, told CNN Brasil. Her family, who are Brazilian, live in Florida, where Filgueiras was raised, her mother said.

Before Filgueiras even had her driver’s license, she had gotten her hands on a pilot’s license at age 17, her stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, told CNN Brasil. Though some people were taken aback by her eagerness to be in the sky, Filgueiras was excited by it.

“I like being different than everyone, so to me, I think it’s, like, cool,” Filgueiras told CNN affiliate WPEC in 2023. “Some people think that it’s, like, weird because I can fly planes, but I can’t drive a car. I mean, I can, but a lot of people think it’s funny.”

She had graduated from American Flyers, one of the most prestigious aviation schools in the United States and had already accumulated more than 1,300 flight hours, her family said.

No details have been released about the other pilot on board.

Upper Jets, the company that operated the plane, offered condolences “to everyone affected by the catastrophic event” and said it was “committed to supporting the families of all those who lost a loved one.”

In its statement to CNN, the company said it was cooperating with authorities “to ensure an objective understanding of what occurred” and noted information about the crash will be shared by authorities.

A crater scattered with evidence

A team of NTSB investigators has begun piecing together what could have caused such a catastrophic crash, but they will have to navigate difficult challenges as they meticulously document the site over the next several days.

“The biggest obstacle that we’re going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway,” NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator Tim Monville said.

The crater is now filled with murky water, and more rounds of rain are expected to sweep through the area until Tuesday, possibly lingering into Wednesday morning.

About 20 investigators were at the scene Sunday and more have arrived since, including NTSB Member Tom Chapman.

Chapman told reporters pieces of the aircraft may have broken off before it struck the ground, possibly scattering evidence across nearby roads, ball fields, businesses and homes.

“We do have some evidence that there was some breakup of the aircraft before impact. We’re still seeking to determine that,” Chapman said Monday. “We may find some parts of the aircraft some distance from the crash site.”

Determining whether the plane was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder will also be essential. Aircraft maintenance records show one was installed on the plane, but it is unclear whether it was still on board, Chapman said.

“We’ll be better off with it,” Chapman said when asked whether investigators would be stymied without the recorder. But even without it, he said, “Our folks are very, very good. We’re still able to do some incredible detective work and determine how things transpired.”

Weather and ‘supercooled’ water

Determining how weather may have contributed to the crash will be a major focus of the investigation, Chapman said.

The plane had been flying around 35,000 feet when the pilot reported one of the biggest hazards in aviation: icing.

In January 2024, the NTSB published a safety alert emphasizing the risks of in-flight icing conditions, which can cause pilots to lose control.

Icing can cause an increase in a plane’s weight, a reduction in lift, a decrease in thrust and an increase in drag, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In other words, icing can slow an aircraft or force it downward.

All clouds at heights where temperatures dip below freezing have the potential to create icing conditions, according to the FAA, and icing can happen any time of year if the conditions are right.

Even in warm weather, thunderstorms generate powerful updrafts, or columns of rising air that cool rapidly. The higher the altitude, the colder the air gets. And temperatures in these updrafts can drop to as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit at the altitudes where planes fly.

Filgueiras told air traffic controllers the temperature outside the plane as -47 degrees Celsius. Ice cannot typically form in air below -40 degrees Celsius, as any liquid at that temperature has already frozen.

But thunderstorms can carry violent internal updrafts, thrusting supercooled water droplets upward even in air colder than -40 degrees Celsius.

The water can remain liquid and freeze on contact with the surfaces of an airplane — much like freezing rain falls as liquid and freezes on cars and roads on contact.

Hundreds of residents displaced

Hundreds of residents of a mobile home park have also been displaced by the crash, the scene of which is blocking the entrance, according to Joel Flores, Palm Beach County commissioner for District 3.

Those residents are advised to stay with relatives or are being housed in two shelters while the site is under investigation, though authorities are looking for alternative temporary housing, he said.

Several residents had left their homes to look at the scene of the crash and were unable to re-enter once police established a perimeter around the crater, Flores said. Some have expressed concern that they have been unable to access their belongings or vehicles, which they need to get to work.

The county is considering it a state of emergency, said county administrator Joseph Abruzzo, who is acting as incident commander. The move would allow officials to unlock emergency funds to help the displaced.

Local officials are also considering how to assist businesses that may be impacted by extended closures in the area, including a strip mall not far from the crash site, Abruzzo said.

The NTSB is aware that the longer its investigation takes, the longer these people will be uprooted.

“We understand the challenges for those folks and we want to do our work as quickly as we can so that the access to the neighborhood can be reestablished,” Monville said Monday.