A business jet crashed into a South Florida neighborhood and erupted into a ball of flames, killing all nine people on board and leaving a fiery crater. The cause was not immediately clear, but federal investigators are expected to provide an update Monday.
Video recorded by passersby captured the terrifying moment on Sunday afternoon when the Bahamas-bound aircraft plunged from the sky before slamming into the ground and exploding in Green Acres, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach. Flames flickered around chunks of pavement lining the crater as shocked residents looked on in horror. Thick black smoke engulfed the crash site.
“Debris was everywhere. Debris hit my house. Everything was on fire. The road was on fire,” Anthony Blackmon, who lives near the crash site, told NBC affiliate WTVJ. “I’ve always seen it on the news, never thought it would happen so close to somebody like how it happened today.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were no immediate reports of anyone on the ground injured or killed. Authorities have not released the names of the people who died.
Palm Beach County authorities were evacuating about 600 people from a nearby mobile home community while the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigate the crash.
Authorities have not provided any information about what caused the Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 to crash. NTSB officials planned to hold a news conference in West Palm Beach on Monday.
The jet began its journey at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, and airport spokesperson Jim Reynolds described it as a private aircraft. He could not immediately provide details about who was on board.
The plane was heading east at 35,000 feet (about 11 kilometers) when the pilot started to report problems.
The pilot said ice was accumulating on the jet and that turbulence was jolting it by as much as 700 feet (213 meters), according to air traffic control recordings captured by LiveATC.net. Rain pounded the region on Sunday.
“We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot told controllers.
The situation rapidly deteriorated.
The pilot requested permission to climb another 2,000 feet (about 610 meters) then quickly declared an emergency as the jet lost altitude at an alarming rate.
“We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed.
“We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgment of what was about to happen. “We’re going to crash into the ground.”
The plane banked sharply to the right before crashing and exploding.
“It was a cataclysmic plane crash,” DeSantis told reporters at the scene. “It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road.”
Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California. Associated Press transportation writer Josh Funk in Gretna, Nebraska, contributed.
Law enforcement respond to a plane crash in Palm Beach County, Fla., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Elias)
Law enforcement respond to a plane crash in Palm Beach County, Fla., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Elias)
Law enforcement respond to a plane crash in Palm Beach County, Fla., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Elias)
HULL, England (AP) — Karl Bushby embraced his weeping mother in his arms Monday as he returned to his northern England home to complete a 28-year odyssey to walk around the world.
“Where have you been?” his mother, Angela, asked as he arrived outside the home he left in 1998 that was now decked with a banner saying “Welcome Home Son.”
He didn’t need to tell her.
Bushby set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, and walked 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) across four continents and 30 countries to get home. He navigated shifting ice over the Bering Strait and swam across the Caspian Sea and English Channel to avoid taking a boat or plane — or any transport — to propel him forward.
He vowed not to return until he could complete the journey on foot. It was an eye-opening adventure full of danger and drudgery that was interrupted for years at a time by the unexpected: the 2008 financial crash that sapped funding from sponsors, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and mountains of bureaucratic red tape to get across international borders.
On the final day of the journey, Bushby pushed his cart toward a hero’s welcome at City Hall before setting off for the last stretch to see his mother.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he joked to the crowd of hundreds who cheered his arrival. “Is that it, is it done?”
The ex-paratrooper said he looked like he was 10 years old when he left his mother's rowhouse at the age of 29. He returned as a 57-year-old — softer, grayer and weathered, but far more worldly.
“They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby said. “The kindness of strangers, so many, from individuals to nation states to get me back here today. I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
Bushby had a thirst for adventure, but his mission only came into focus when his father, Keith, sent him a birthday card in the mid-90s. His dad, an army veteran himself, mentioned an argument two special forces troops had about the possibility of walking from London to New York over the Bering land bridge, believed by some scientists to have been used by early humans to migrate from Asia to the Americas at a time of lower sea levels.
Perilous jungles, scorching deserts and frozen tundra slowed him down, but bureaucratic holdups brought his adventure to a halt for long periods.
Bushby originally calculated the distance could be covered in about five years, but he knew that was unrealistic.
“You just dump a whole bucket full of reality on that,” he said. “We suspected that it was 12 years plus. And the plus was a big plus. But never in our wildest dreams would we ever have imagined 28 years.”
He dodged war in the dangerous Darién Gap, the roadless and rugged jungle, rainforest and mountains between South and Central America in 2001, and was then jailed for 18 days after crossing a restricted border zone in Panama.
After being airlifted to safety during the 56-mile (90-kilometer) Bering Strait crossing in 2006 with American adventurer Dimitry Kieffer, they started again and faced a standoff with a polar bear, survived near-death plunges into freezing waters and almost lost all their supplies when their sleds plunged in the sea. After managing the rare crossing, the pair were jailed and faced deportation for entering Russia illegally.
It took Bushby almost 10 years to make his way through Russia in fits and starts because of visa struggles and weather that only allowed travel a few months a year. When Russia denied him a visa in 2012, Bushby walked in protest from Los Angeles to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., which eventually led to him getting the proper paperwork.
Bushby has met several times over the decades with family members who have met up with him on his journey. He was greeted on the beach in Dover by his father and brothers after crossing the channel last month.
He reunited with Adam, his 36-year-old son from an early marriage whom he had rarely seen, and he met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time.
Bushby hadn't seen his mother in a decade, setting the stage for an emotional and somewhat awkward reunion captured amid a throng of cameras and a documentary film crew.
“Behave yourself, mother,” he joked, as his mother wept and he held her and rubbed her back. “Get yourself together.”
In the final days of his trip, Bushby spoke of his anxiety over the trip ending, living in his mom's basement and not knowing what he would do.
“It’s like stepping across the event horizon into a black hole,” he told The Associated Press. “I have no idea what’s about to happen in my life.”
Melley reported from London.
British adventurer Karl Bushby speaks to a wellwisher outside his mother's house in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)
British adventurer Karl Bushby embraces his mother Angela Bushby as he arrives back at her home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world, Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, (AP Photo/Jon Super)
British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
British adventurer Karl Bushby walks near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, back to his mother's home in Hull after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Kwiyeon Ha)
British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
British adventurer Karl Bushby greets crowds in Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
British adventurer Karl Bushby is surrounded by members of the public as he arrives back in Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, heading to his mother's home after his 28 years journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
British adventurer Karl Bushby walks through Hull, England, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, on his way to the city centre before making his way back to his mother's home after 28 years of his journey walking across the world. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
