Learjet 60 That Crashed in Florida Drew ATC Turbulence Warning in May

The Learjet 60 that broke apart over Palm Beach County on Sunday, killing all nine people on board, received a stern warning from air traffic control over the same airframe four months earlier. Audio obtained by the Daily Mail and the U.K. Sun records a controller near Newark, New Jersey, questioning the crew of tail N722BD in May after they climbed without clearance into weather they described as "moderate chop."

The exchange, which resurfaced after Sunday's crash, cuts to a core operational question: whether the crew correctly assessed the severity of the conditions it was flying through.

What happened in the May exchange?

"Why are you climbing?" the controller asked, according to the recorded audio. The female pilot answered: "We're just about to call you, we are experiencing moderate chop and unable to hold altitude."

The controller pushed back firmly. "That is not moderate, descend to 4,000 [feet] immediately. If you can't maintain altitude, that is not moderate, that is severe turbulence. Are you experiencing severe turbulence?" Both pilots replied, "Affirmative, sir," confirmed there were no injuries on board, and reported they were still in severe turbulence.

It remains unclear whether the pilots on that May flight were the same two who died on Sunday. What is confirmed is the aircraft: the May flight and the crashed jet share the tail number N722BD. The aircraft was owned by Upper Jets, a private aviation company based in Fort Lauderdale.

Sunday's flight departed Austin, Texas, bound for the Bahamas. It never arrived.

Who was on board?

The crew consisted of pilot Jeff Gregory, 55, and co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras, 20. The seven passengers were tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his artist wife Helen Sharp, their two children Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and the family's nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina.

NFL running back Joe Mixon, a two-time Pro Bowl selection now a free agent, said he had flown on the same aircraft the month before the crash. "I flew on that exact aircraft last month with those same two pilots," Mixon wrote on X. "They were incredible professionals and genuinely wonderful people."

He singled out Filgueiras. "Hearing the young woman's story and learning about the bright future she had ahead of her makes it even more heartbreaking that her life was cut so short," he wrote.

What does the wreckage tell investigators?

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration have opened an investigation. At a news conference on Tuesday, investigators said pieces of the jet were found roughly six kilometres from the crash site.

NTSB member Tom Chapman said a section of the tail recovered that far from the impact crater indicates the aircraft was likely breaking up before it hit the ground. He gave one specific finding: the tail's elevator — the control surface that pitches the aircraft's nose up and down — was snapped into three pieces.

Without an intact elevator, the pilots would have been unable to pull the aircraft out of its nosedive. Chapman added a caveat about the limits of that reasoning. "The function of the elevator is to control the pitch up and down," he said. "At those speeds I don't know that it would've been effective even if it had still been attached to the aircraft, but knowing that it was lost is a very important piece of evidence in terms of pointing us towards other things to investigate."

What were the final minutes like?

Air traffic control audio from Sunday captures the sequence. Minutes before the mayday call, Filgueiras told controllers the jet was encountering turbulence and accumulating ice. She then reported the aircraft was descending rapidly. The jet exploded on impact.

Three facts now anchor the investigation:

• An elevator found in three pieces, located six kilometres from the impact crater
• A crew report of turbulence and airframe icing minutes before the mayday
• A May incident on the same airframe in which controllers challenged the crew's assessment of turbulence severity

Whether the May exchange bears on Sunday's crash is a question the NTSB has not answered. The board's evidence — an in-flight breakup, a failed pitch control surface, and reported icing — will guide the coming months of work as investigators reconstruct what tore N722BD apart before it reached the ground.