Florida Learjet Crash 11/1/26: Possible cause? (6 Viewers)

[AerialTorpedoDude69]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSngzLP6fR8

Video has some disturbing content, including the crash itself as well as the copilot's communications with ground. This video makes the incredibly dodgy claim that icing may have caused the crash.

When an aircraft nosedives at near the speed of sound into the ground, isn't it always because of lost elevator control, right? This is clearly a maintenance failure.

I believe this is around the seventh fatal crash in the US since 2025. Before that there were zero as far back as I can remember.

 

[GrauGeist]

They had ascended to 35,000 feet, heading east and flew unto a major storm cell.
It was at that time the pilot reported icing and then shortly after that, issued a Mayday.

If you look at the dash cam footage moments before impact, the aircraft is missing it's horizontal stabilizers.

It would appear the violent up and down drafts in the storm cell may have compromised the aircraft. Without the rear stabilizers, there would be no way to control the pitch.

 

[skyking1]

Nothing dodgy about say it was probably icing. It was weather for certain IMO.
The Lear 60 is subject to a phenomenon called "mach tuck".
At altitude it has a very narrow range of operation, and is not tolerant or forgiving of things like ice and extreme turbulence at that end of the envelope.
Once it noses over the pilot has little time to recover before the airframe exceeds it's capabilities.
This is not a maintenance failure, it is the case of exceeding the envelope.
Regardless, the NTSB will sort it out in about 6 months. That is typical for timing.
The Stabilizer will be located and it will tell the tale. They can look at all the pieces and tell how it was broken.

 

[skyking1]

They had ascended to 35,000 feet, heading east and flew unto a major storm cell.
It was at that time the pilot reported icing and then shortly after that, issued a Mayday.

If you look at the dash cam footage moments before impact, the aircraft is missing it's horizontal stabilizers.

It would appear the violent up and down drafts in the storm cell may have compromised the aircraft. Without the rear stabilizers, there would be no way to control the pitch.

Try as I might, I can't make out the left wing either.
EDIT: I found another frame of the dashcam video that shows the left wing.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Nothing dodgy about say it was probably icing. It was weather for certain IMO.
The Lear 60 is subject to a phenomenon called "mach tuck".
At altitude it has a very narrow range of operation, and is not tolerant or forgiving of things like ice and extreme turbulence at that end of the envelope.
Once it noses over the pilot has little time to recover before the airframe exceeds it's capabilities.
This is not a maintenance failure, it is the case of exceeding the envelope.
Regardless, the NTSB will sort it out in about 6 months. That is typical for timing.
The Stabilizer will be located and it will tell the tale. They can look at all the pieces and tell how it was broken.

Pieces of the stabilizer were found 4 miles away.

 

[AerialTorpedoDude69]

Great answers everyone. Thank you.

Aerial phenomena like microbursts can exert incredible amounts of downward force on aircraft. But is it normal for the horizontal stabilizer to pop off or could that be a sign of a structural or mechanical issue with the aircraft?

Nothing dodgy about say it was probably icing. It was weather for certain IMO.
The Lear 60 is subject to a phenomenon called "mach tuck".
At altitude it has a very narrow range of operation, and is not tolerant or forgiving of things like ice and extreme turbulence at that end of the envelope.
Once it noses over the pilot has little time to recover before the airframe exceeds it's capabilities.
This is not a maintenance failure, it is the case of exceeding the envelope.
Regardless, the NTSB will sort it out in about 6 months. That is typical for timing.
The Stabilizer will be located and it will tell the tale. They can look at all the pieces and tell how it was broken.

That is incredible, thank you.

I'm surprised that a modern aircraft could suffer from this. It is also a bit strange that this would happen as the aircraft was in a climb and entering a storm. Maybe there was a combination of factors, such as the Learjet's tendency to pull downward at high speeds combined with a microburst?

 

[Oliverlovesplanes]

No One really thinks that lightning could have hit the aircraft and caused it to lose control in the tail controls or could have blasted away the tail in general. but that's my opinion.

 

[GrauGeist]

No One really thinks that lightning could have hit the aircraft and caused it to lose control in the tail controls or could have blasted away the tail in general. but that's my opinion.

Lightning strikes on aircraft in flight are rarely disastrous.

The lightning can momentarily blind the crew and interrupt the electronics, but will generally pass around the fuselage like a faraday cage.

On the other hand, the conditions inside a storm cell can do severe damage to an aircraft. Violent vertical air currents, freezing conditions that lead to icing and/or result in extremely large hail stones (which damages canopies, radomes, leading edges of wing surfaces and be ingested in jet engines) can easily compromise the integrity of a smaller aircraft.

Large aircraft try and avoid entering storm cells and for smaller aircraft, doing so is very dangerous.

 

[cvairwerks]

Great answers everyone. Thank you.

Aerial phenomena like microbursts can exert incredible amounts of downward force on aircraft. But is it normal for the horizontal stabilizer to pop off or could that be a sign of a structural or mechanical issue with the aircraft?

I'm surprised that a modern aircraft could suffer from this. It is also a bit strange that this would happen as the aircraft was in a climb and entering a storm. Maybe there was a combination of factors, such as the Learjet's tendency to pull downward at high speeds combined with a microburst?

They were having altitude hold problems just before flying into the core of that cell. Vertical acceleration loads required to force sudden deviations from crusie at +/- 700 feet per minute on a 20,000 pound aircraft going almost 500 mph, are huge. Combine that with plowing into the cell core, where it's not unusual to see vertical shear velocities approaching 100 mph. and it simply exceeded the structural limits of the tail. Not a maintenance problem under any stretch of the imagination.

 

[fubar57]

The idiot tinfoil hat brigade are going nuts on Instagram. I've logged out for the rest of the week

 

[ARTESH]

I've seen the video which shows the Impact crater...

I don't think anyone survived that impact.

 

[ARTESH]

Lightning strikes on aircraft in flight are rarely disastrous.

The lightning can momentarily blind the crew and interrupt the electronics, but will generally pass around the fuselage like a faraday cage.

On the other hand, the conditions inside a storm cell can do severe damage to an aircraft. Violent vertical air currents, freezing conditions that lead to icing and/or result in extremely large hail stones (which damages canopies, radomes, leading edges of wing surfaces and be ingested in jet engines) can easily compromise the integrity of a smaller aircraft.

Large aircraft try and avoid entering storm cells and for smaller aircraft, doing so is very dangerous.

IIAF Flight 48 was the one that redesigned the lightning protection related stuff.

IDK the correct technical wording, sorry.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Assuming it was ice, and the ice-protection systems were being used correctly, it must have been some ice. The Learjet 60 has a comprehensive ice-protection system, featuring bleed-air-heated wing leading edges, engine nacelles, fan spinners and low-pressure compressor stators, and an electrically heated horizontal stabilizer. I'm no pilot nor aerospace engineer/tech, but if all those systems were active, can one's aircraft still suffer rapid and inescapable ice buildup?

 

[cvairwerks]

Assuming it was ice, and the ice-protection systems were being used correctly, it must have been some ice. The Learjet 60 has a particularly comprehensive ice-protection system, featuring bleed-air-heated wing leading edges, engine nacelles, fan spinners and low-pressure compressor stators, and an electrically heated horizontal stabilizer.

Part of the problem they ran into was apparently getting super cooled rain at that altitude. As soon as it struck the fuselage, it spread and froze, causing localized air flow disruptions. Continue that for hundreds of times a second all over the airframe and the anti-ice system probably couldn't keep up. With the coffin corner so tight on the -60 at that altitude, any disruption could push them past the corner in just a very short time.