NTSB recovers cockpit voice recorder from Learjet crash site in Florida, Digi Mart USA News (Greenacres, Florida): The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Monday that it has recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 60 that crashed last week near Greenacres, Florida, killing all nine people on board.
“NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 60 that crashed on Nov. 1 near Greenacres, Florida,” the NTSB said on X. The CVR was found at the location of the initial impact, according to the NTSB.
The agency said the CVR is being evaluated in the board’s Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
The excavation work at the impact site has been completed. This comes after investigators said on Friday that they recovered part of an engine from the Learjet.
Crews started excavating the site on Wednesday after utility workers had drained water and cleared other hazards, the NTSB said. Once investigators began digging, they found a part of one engine, the board said.
Earlier last week, investigators recovered the left tail elevator, which controls the jet’s pitch, in three separate pieces. One of them was found nearly four miles from where the Learjet 60 crashed.
“Even small pieces of the wreckage may contain important evidence that could help investigators determine what happened,” the agency wrote last week on X.
The Learjet 60 left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport around 10:37 a.m. on Sunday, bound for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.
The aircraft plunged into the ground in Palm Beach County shortly before 1 p.m., killing everyone aboard. Austin tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 45, was killed in the crash alongside his wife, Helen Sharp, 40, their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, the children’s nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, and couple Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms were reported across South Florida when the Learjet crashed. Investigators said the weather will be a major focus of their probe.
At about 41,000 feet, an air traffic controller told the flight crew that moderate precipitation was roughly five miles away and said they could move either left or right, stressing that the turn toward Freeport in the Bahamas “looks pretty bad.”
The crew was then instructed to fly to a waypoint near Naples, Florida. The crew made a deviation toward Palm Beach County and reported that weather conditions were deteriorating.
The crew told air traffic control that there was icing and turbulence, asking the controller if there was a “better ride” ahead.
