Cockpit Voice Recorder Recovered From Florida Learjet Crash

Investigators said on Monday that they had recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the device that captures sound inside the cockpit, from a Learjet that crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on November 1. All nine people on board the Bahamas-bound plane were killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency that investigates transportation accidents in the United States, said the recorder was found at the site of initial impact. It is being evaluated at the agency's Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The NTSB also said excavation work at the impact site has been completed. NTSB statement on X

The aircraft was a Learjet 60 that had departed from Austin, Texas, and was bound for the Bahamas. It crashed near Greenacres, Florida. The flight was operated by Upper Jets.

According to reporting by The Guardian, the co-pilot told air traffic controllers that the Learjet was being thrown up and down by more than 700 feet and asked for a better route through the area. Air traffic controllers are the staff who guide aircraft through controlled airspace.

Pieces of the Learjet's elevator, a hinged control surface on the tail that helps steer the plane's nose up and down, were found more than a mile away from the main crater. That location confirms the plane began to break apart before it hit the ground.