Witnesses recount the moments a Bahamas-bound private jet from Texas crashed at a Palm Beach neighborhood

A private business jet traveling from Texas to the Bahamas plunged nearly 9,000 feet in seconds and slammed into a busy roadway in Palm Beach County, erupting into a massive fireball that left a crater in the street, killed all of the passengers on board, and forced roughly 600 nearby residents from their homes, officials and witnesses said. The Learjet 60, registered in Delaware, was carrying nine people from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when the crew began reporting severe weather and turbulence. According to flight data, the aircraft was cruising at an altitude of nearly 9,000 feet before it entered a steep dive toward the ground at a rate exceeding 32,000 feet per minute. Air traffic control audio captured the pilot reporting severe turbulence and icing before the jet plummeted. "The captain there, she had asked for a higher altitude to go up to get above this precipitation, and at that particular point, something catastrophic happened," aviation attorney Willard Shepard said. She