Plane that crashed in Florida leaving 9 dead was breaking apart in mid-air, investigation reveals

The plane that left nine people dead when it crashed in the United States on Sunday "was breaking apart" in mid-air before crashing in Florida, where the impact of the accident forced the evacuation of about 400 people, mostly Hispanics, federal and local authorities detailed on Monday.

Investigators have not formally identified the victims or the causes of Sunday's accident in Palm Beach County, but they are investigating whether the weather was a major factor, explained Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in a press conference.

"We have some indications that the aircraft was breaking up before impact, and part of this is still to be determined. It is possible that we will find parts of the aircraft at some distance from the exact crash site," Chapman detailed.

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Palm Beach authorities are seeking for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to declare an "emergency" after the accident because it affected an area with 77 mobile homes and displaced 400 people, 40 of whom are in shelters, noted Commissioner Joel Flores of said county.

The aircraft, a Learjet 60, crashed around 12:50 local time (17:50 GMT) in a residential area near the Cresthaven neighborhood after having taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, the capital of Texas, and was heading to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas.

"Unfortunately, these people have been displaced from their homes because it is a crime scene and they (the experts) are collecting all the evidence they can. The community is primarily Hispanic, so we are helping them return to normal," Flores explained in Spanish.

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For now, authorities know that the crew communicated before the accident with the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center, reporting that they were at 35,000 feet (10.6 kilometers high) with "moderate turbulence," Chapman detailed.

The crew notified that the outside temperature was 47 degrees Celsius below zero and that they were managing ice, detailed the NTSB member, who highlighted the weather as a "major focus" of the investigation.

So far, family members have only publicly identified 20-year-old Brazilian-American Nathalia Filgueiras, a co-pilot of the plane who obtained her license at 17, even before her driver's license, but Chapman noted that they have yet to determine her role in the events.

Images on social media show that the aircraft impacted the ground and turned into a huge fireball that left a crater in the pavement.

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