A family of four, including two young children, were among those killed when a Learjet slammed into a Florida roadway, according to a relative.
All nine people aboard the Bahamas-bound aircraft — two crew members and seven passengers — were killed in Sunday’s catastrophic crash in Palm Beach County, authorities said.
Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp and their two young children — Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2 — were among those aboard the plane, according to Robinson’s brother.
“Helen and Adam were the love affair that will last forever,” Anthony Robinson said in an online statement while sharing a photo of the family. “Their warmth, generosity and gift for making people feel welcome touched so many lives. Their loss will be felt deeply by all those who loved them and who they loved in return.”
The co-pilot’s stepfather also identified her to ABC News on Monday as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras.
An official from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office said it is too early for victims’ identities to be officially released. The medical examiner’s office is engaged in the “lengthy process” of DNA collection and assessment, officials said.
Plane may have been breaking up before crash: NTSB
The 22-year-old twin-engine Learjet 60 crashed after plummeting to the ground at 350 feet per second, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said, creating a huge crater in a roadway.
The plane may have been breaking up before it hit the ground, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.
“We do have some indication that the aircraft was breaking up before impact, and so some of this is yet to be determined. We may find parts of the aircraft some distance away from the actual impact site,” NTSB board member Tom Chapman said at an afternoon news conference in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Chapman said before beginning a rapid descent from 35,000 feet and making a Mayday emergency call to air traffic control, the aircraft’s two-person crew reported they were experiencing icing on the aircraft and “moderate turbulence.”
NTSB officials said they do not have precise numbers on the Learjet’s airspeed, but said it was traveling at a high rate of speed before the crash.
Adam Robinson, his wife Helen, and their children Emma and Charlie pose in a family photo. The Robinson family were riding in the Learjet that crashed in Florida.
Aircraft maintenance records showed there was a cockpit voice recorder installed on the jet, according to Chapman, but he said it’s unclear if it was still onboard the aircraft during its final flight.
Learjet with 9 aboard crashes in Palm Beach County, Florida: FAA
Photos and videos online showed a jet hitting the ground nose-first and bursting into a fireball. The impact of the crash left a crater near a shopping center.
Man injured on the ground
One man who was in a vehicle on the ground “immediately adjacent” to the crash site sustained a leg injury, according to NTSB investigator in charge Timothy Monville.
The jet crashed just before 1 p.m. ET near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue, in the Greenacres community of Palm Beach County, authorities said.
The crash prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people from 77 mobile homes in the area, county officials said following the NTSB briefing.
US strikes Iran ahead of midterm elections
Tony Hawk kicked out of LA park while celebrating ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3’
Donna Brothers To Be Honored At Derby In December
