If recoverable, cockpit audio could reveal pilots’ words amid turbulence and icing
The National Transportation Safety Board recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the crash site of a Bahamas-bound Learjet in Florida and is evaluating the device at a lab in Washington. The business jet struck the ground nose-first on Nov. 1 amid severe weather and erupted in a fireball, killing all nine people aboard. The agency announced the recovery Monday in a statement posted to social media.
If data from the recorder can be recovered, it could provide crucial details about what the pilots said to each other as they encountered turbulence, ice formed on the wings and they lost control of the aircraft.
The recorder could also shed light on other aspects of the crash, including why the Learjet appeared to steer around a large storm cell only to head directly into a rapidly developing smaller one.
Witnesses captured video of the business jet plunging nose-first into the ground. The Associated Press described the air traffic control transmissions as recording “the disturbing moments as the pilots realized their fate.”
Investigators separately said pieces of a key part of the tail called the elevator, which controls the plane’s pitch, were found more than a mile from the main crater. The finding confirmed that the Learjet started to break apart before impact.
The co-pilot told air traffic controllers that the plane was being thrown up and down more than 700 feet (213 meters). She also asked the controllers for a better route through the area.
It was not immediately known whether the recorder had been damaged or whether it had been working at all when the jet crashed. Photographs the agency posted online showed the recorder’s orange-painted metal shell. Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told The Associated Press that it appeared to be in decent shape.
“It’s very plausible that any info on the recorder survived,” Guzzetti said. “If they can recover it, and it’s from the accident flight, that will be a huge help to investigators.”
Guzzetti noted that when the NTSB recovered the cockpit voice recorder from a medical transport plane that crashed in Philadelphia in January 2025, killing seven people, the device likely had not been functioning for several years.
Investigators will review maintenance records and any history of problems with the Learjet. They also plan to interview officials at Upper Jets, which operated the flight, as well as air traffic controllers and people who work at the airport in Austin, Texas, where the jet departed.
A crash investigation generally takes the NTSB 12 to 18 months, though complicated cases can take longer. The agency’s roughly 400 workers are pursuing more than 1,200 active investigations.