A cockpit voice recorder that may contain the Learjet crew’s final moments was recovered from the wreckage after the aircraft crashed in a fireball in Palm Beach County, Florida, officials said.
The device, which records cockpit conversations, radio communications and warning alerts, was located at the crash site in Greenacres, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X.
Investigators transported the recorder to the NTSB’s Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for evaluation. Officials also confirmed that excavation work at the crash site has been completed.
If the recordings are intact, they could provide crucial insight into the pilots’ decisions before the Learjet plunged at high speed in a nose-dive, killing nine people on Nov. 1.
The cockpit voice recorder is one component of the “black box” system required on smaller commercial, corporate and private aircraft, according to the NTSB.
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Any surviving audio could help investigators determine why the $2 million private jet crashed into a South Florida mobile home park in a terrifying incident captured on video.
The wreckage seriously damaged the park and injured one person on the ground, while all nine people aboard the private flight from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas were killed instantly.
Here’s the latest on the fatal Learjet crash in Florida
Passengers on the ill-fated flight included multimillionaire technology executive Adam Robinson, 44; his wife, Helen Sharp; their two children; and their nanny, Anita Ramirez Cetina, 24.
Pilot in command Jeff Gregory, 55, and co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras, 20, also died in the crash.
