Pilot Filgueiras screamed "We're out of time" at 12:49:17 pm ET, her final words before the Learjet 60 slammed into a Palm Beach County roadway. The aircraft, flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, lost 27,000 feet in roughly 60 seconds. All nine people on board perished.
The emergency unfolded with terrifying speed. At 12:48 pm, over Palm Beach County, Filgueiras reported light ice and -47°C outside air temperatures. She requested a climb to 37,000 feet, which Miami Air Route Traffic Control approved. Seconds later, the tone shifted. "Mayday, mayday!" she yelled.
The descent rate spiked from 8,000 to 10,000 feet per minute, then to a terrifying 20,000. "We are in an overspeed condition," Filgueiras shouted into the microphone. "We're going to crash into the ground!" The final data point showed the jet falling at 22,000 feet per minute—367 feet per second.
Icing is a known killer in aviation. It adds weight, kills lift, and drags the nose down. The NTSB is now digging into whether the plane broke apart before impact. Investigators are scrutinizing the cockpit voice recorder and flight data for clues on how the controls failed.
The NTSB will release a preliminary report within 30 days. Until then, the black boxes hold the only answers to why the jet fell out of the sky.