Illustration. AI photo All nine people on board the executive plane that crashed today on Sunday, November 1, in Florida were killed, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed this evening, in a statement he posted on his official Twitter account.
Duffy described the crash as a "horrific tragedy" and said the Learjet 60 crashed in a residential neighborhood near Cresthaven in Palm Beach County at around 12:50 p.m. local time. In his statement on X, he noted: "All nine people on board were killed."
The confirmation of their deaths follows an initial report about the crash in the residential area and the announcement from the local sheriff's office.
According to Duffy's statement, the plane took off from Austin, Texas, and was en route to the Bahamas. Footage published in the media showed flames and thick black smoke at the crash site, to which fire, rescue and police forces were called.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said the incident was under investigation and that Military Trail was closed in both directions between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North. The public was asked to avoid the area and use alternate routes.
The official statement from the US Secretary of Transportation confirms the deaths of all people on the plane, but does not specify whether there were any casualties on the ground. The cause of the crash has not yet been announced, nor have the identities of the dead been disclosed in the statement.