17 Other Jets Were in the Same Sky. Only the Florida Learjet Fell.

On Sunday, November 1, 2026, a Learjet 60 (N722BD) flying from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas fell from 35,000 feet inside a thunderstorm over South Florida and crashed near Greenacres in Palm Beach County. All nine people on board were killed.

Seventeen other jets were in the same stormy sky above 25,000 feet that afternoon, and all of them landed. Under our last video, many of you said the others simply went around the storm. We checked every one on the real NEXRAD weather radar: most came close to the same storms, and two flew straight through the rain. So what was different about the Learjet?

This video lays the Learjet's last twenty minutes over the National Weather Service radar near Miami, the ADS-B tracks of all 18 jets and the public Miami Center air traffic control recording, second by second: the FAA's 20-mile rule, seven quiet minutes in a six-mile lane along the edge of the storm, and the turn toward Freeport, straight at a storm cell that was growing past their altitude. It also remembers the nine people on board. The NTSB investigation is open: no cause has been found, and nothing in this video should be read as one.

⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:58 How We Checked 2:02 Eighteen Jets 3:05 Twenty Miles 4:26 Seven Minutes 5:38 The Cell on the Line 7:46 What Was Different 9:00 Your Answers 9:53 What Comes Next

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This video is sort of interesting. Shows radar picture showing learjet was flying just south of the main storm. They apparently flew right into a small storm and that is when they went into a dive. Seems like they should have stayed further south further from the big storm, rather than flying close to it.

Video says two other small jets flew through the storm, but doesn't give much information on them

They apparently flew right into a small storm and that is when they went into a dive. Seems like they should have stayed further south further from the big storm, rather than flying close to it.

The big storm wasn't the problem. They were south of the big storm.

They flew above the small storm that was developing. The captain did not have a vector to fly south of the small storm, but had ATC clearance to fly north of the small storm, to avoid the small storm and big storm.

Regrettably, the crew chose to stay on course.

Ryan Hall has a short video explaining it.

76 Seconds From Cruising to the Ground - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/60QhQKtP51I

1 minute long

Video says two other small jets flew through the storm, but doesn't give much information on them

The Learjet should have been able to handle flying over the small storm, but something went wrong.

Possible theories:

1. Crew delayed or failed to activate anti-icing systems.
2. System failure on aircraft, such as icing feedback on tail or wings.
3. Previous damage to aircraft that was not repaired.
4. Freak of nature, act of God, hit an updraft at the perfect time, a weather condition the crew and aircraft could not recover from.

Regarding point 3, at one point I ran across a short video covering an exchange with ATC about 6 months prior to the crash with the same aircraft, but different crew. The aircraft was apparently very unstable and unable to maintain a set altitude, such that the ATC controller was concerned and not happy because they were in danger of becoming a problem to other aircraft. This might be nothing, or it might point to some kind of issue with the trim that might have involved a weakness or vulnerability that was fatally exposed in the crash.

The video from 6 months earlier was probably the same crew. It was a woman’s voice, who sounds like the same woman. So she was the pilot monitoring and probably the same pilot was flying.

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