WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Investigators have found part of the tail of the plane that crashed in South Florida, more than a mile from the crater caused by the plane’s impact.
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Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference Tuesday that the discovery of tail pieces confirms that the plane broke apart before hitting the ground.
Chapman said the tail elevator was broken in three parts and without it the pilot would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its dive.
“The function of the elevator is to control the pitch up and down,” he explained. “At those speeds, I don’t know if it would have been effective even if it had still been attached to the aircraft, but knowing that it was lost is a very important piece of evidence that directs us to other things to investigate.”
Chapman acknowledged Monday that parts of the plane likely began to break apart before it hit the ground. The co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, told air traffic controllers minutes before the crash that ice was building up on the plane and severe turbulence had thrown it up and down more than 700 feet (210 meters).
“We are going to die!” she said with a scream before the jet crashed into the ground and erupted into a ball of fire.
Friends and family celebrate and mourn pilot
Family and friends of one of the pilots have posted online about the longtime aviator, husband and father from suburban Philadelphia.
Jeff Gregory, 55, was one of two crew members in the cockpit of the Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 when it encountered bad weather and crashed to the ground Sunday afternoon in Greenacres, about 7 miles southwest of West Palm Beach.
As the plane plunged, a man’s voice could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the background of the co-pilot’s final radio transmissions to air traffic control. His friends are convinced that it was Gregory, a devout Christian.
Thomas Noetzel, director of operations for the company that operated the flight, Upper Jets, organized an online fundraiser to support Gregory’s wife and children.
Gregory was a close, personal friend and “knowing him made me a better person,” Noetzel wrote on the fundraising site GoFundMe.
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“Jeff was a dedicated, conscientious and deeply faithful man who had a true passion for aviation and a great love for the Lord,” Noetzel’s father, Walter, said on Facebook. “His journey on earth may be over, but I like to think that he now flies among the angels, soaring peacefully in the presence of our Lord.”
Gregory held airline pilot and flight instructor certificates, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. He lived in Gilbertsville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, and had previously worked for a charter company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“We are deeply saddened to learn that Captain Jeff Gregory was among those who lost his life,” said April Honnen, director of charter sales at East Coast Jets, Inc., where he worked in 2016 and 2017. “Our prayers are with Jeff’s family, his fellow crew, passengers and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy.”
The co-pilot radios ATC and sends panicked texts
The Learjet hit the ground with enough force to create a crater before catching fire. The impact scattered aircraft fragments over a wide area.
Footage from the moment just before the plane’s impact appears to show that the elevator – a horizontal stabilizer – is missing from the tail. Around 600 nearby residents are still displaced, but only one injury was reported on the ground.
The plane took off from Austin, Texas. The victims included tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, relatives said.
Filgueiras’ stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, told the New York Post that she texted her boyfriend about 10 minutes before the crash, telling him, “I’m having turbulence, I’m having ice cream.”
The texts were sent before the situation became critical. During the last two minutes of the flight, Filgueiras went from calm communication with air traffic controllers to terrifying updates as the plane plummeted.
The FAA prohibits commercial airline pilots from using cell phones at any time during a flight. The rules are not as strict for charter pilots; They are not expected to use cell phones during critical phases of flight, such as takeoffs and landings, but are permitted when cruising at altitude unless their company or pilot-in-command specifically prohibits it.
Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Monday that weather would be a key part of the investigation. A preliminary report describing what happened will be released in about a month, but it will likely take more than a year to determine the cause of the accident.
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