NTSB Recovers Learjet 60 Cockpit Recorder After 9 Killed in Florida Crash

Q: What final words captured on the recovered voice recorder explain the sudden, steep descent of the doomed Austin tech executive's flight?

The final words reported from the pilots’ distress calls were: “We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute … We’re going to crash into the ground.” Those transmissions, captured on air traffic control audio before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, are the clearest public account so far of the Learjet’s sudden, steep descent. Moments earlier, the crew had reported manageable icing and moderate turbulence, then worsening weather and a rapid loss of altitude. One call said the jet was descending 10,000 feet per minute before the situation worsened further. The newly recovered cockpit voice recorder may now help investigators determine what was happening inside the cockpit in those final seconds — including whether icing, turbulence, structural failure, or loss of control triggered the dive. Investigators have already said pieces of the left elevator, a key pitch-control surface, were found miles from the main crash site, indicating the aircraft began breaking apart before impact. For now, the quoted distress calls — especially “overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute” and “We’re going to crash into the ground” — are the final known words that explain the catastrophic plunge.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Nov 9

The cockpit voice recorder from the Learjet 60 that crashed Nov. 1 near Greenacres, Florida, has been recovered from the initial impact site and sent to the NTSB lab in Washington for evaluation.
Investigators are focusing on severe weather after the jet encountered heavy rain, thunderstorms, icing and turbulence before plunging from cruise altitude, killing all nine people aboard.
At about 41,000 feet, air traffic control warned the crew that weather near their route "looks pretty bad," and the pilots later reported worsening conditions while deviating toward Palm Beach County.
Excavation at the crash site is now complete after crews previously recovered part of an engine and the left tail elevator, with one elevator piece found nearly four miles from the main wreckage.