Panicked 911 callers struggled to describe what they had witnessed after a Learjet crashed in Florida. One caller told dispatchers it sounded as though a “bomb” had exploded, according to audio obtained by News Outlet.
The Learjet 60 departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at about 10:37 a.m. Nov. 1, bound for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. Shortly before 1 p.m., the aircraft crashed in Palm Beach County, killing all nine people aboard.
As the jet came down near a busy roadway, witnesses called 911 and tried to explain the frightening scene unfolding outside their homes.
Investigators examine the scene of a plane crash in Greenacres, Fla., on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“There was an explosion,” one caller said. “I think an airplane or rocket, something fell from the sky. We felt our house shake, and then we heard an explosion when we ran outside.”
The caller likened the sound to a “bomb explosion” and said the power briefly went out before returning.
After going outside, the woman said she saw sparks and smoke. “It was black, it was dark, like it was burning,” she told the dispatcher.
The 911 calls were placed at about 12:51 p.m., moments after the aircraft crashed.
Adam Robinson and his wife, Helen Sharp, were traveling with their two young children when the Learjet carrying them from Texas to the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Nov. 1. (Fox News)
The woman initially wondered whether the boom was caused by lightning, but said she heard no typical lightning sounds. Instead, she described it as “an explosion sound.”
Austin technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 45, died in the crash along with his wife, Helen Sharp, 40; their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2; the children’s nanny, Anita Maria Cetina; and Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
The two pilots, Jeffrey Gregory and Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, also died.
A map traces the Learjet’s route from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas toward the Bahamas before it crashed in Greenacres, Florida. (Fox News)
Heavy rain and thunderstorms were moving through South Florida when the Learjet crashed. Federal investigators have said the weather conditions will be a central part of the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that investigators had recovered the cockpit voice recorder.
“NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 60 that crashed on Nov. 1 near Greenacres, Florida,” the agency said on X.
The cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the initial impact site and is being examined at the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C. (NTSB)
Investigators found the recorder at the aircraft’s initial impact site. It will be examined at the NTSB’s Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
