Investigators have found a significant piece of evidence miles from the site of the fatal Florida Learjet crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at its briefing on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, in a new development in the investigation into the jet’s breakup. NTSB member Tom Chapman said most of the aircraft’s left elevator — the part of the tail that controls the plane’s pitch — was found in three pieces, between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the impact site near Greenacres, Palm Beach County.
Finding that piece is “a very, very significant bit of evidence”, Chapman said, adding that it is “implausible that it would have been a result of the impact. It would have separated before the impact.” The Learjet 60 was flying from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas when it crashed on Sunday, November 1, killing all nine people aboard — two crew and seven passengers. Automobile dashcam images captured moments before impact appear to show the jet’s horizontal stabilizer partially or fully missing, according to Flying Magazine’s report of the briefing, and FlightRadar24 data put the aircraft’s vertical rate of descent above 32,000 feet per minute.
What the tail section can tell investigators
The elevator is a critical flight control surface, and its condition and location can help investigators reconstruct the sequence of failure: whether structural breakup began at the tail, whether aerodynamic forces tore the section away, or whether the damage is consistent with impact forces alone. Chapman cautioned that the finding establishes sequence, not cause: “What that means exactly, in terms of what caused the aircraft to lose control, or whether the loss of this piece was a result of the forces on the aircraft, we don’t know yet.” Without the elevator intact, the pilot would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its nosedive, Chapman said, though he added that at the speeds involved he doubted it would have been effective even if it had stayed attached.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told the Associated Press the pieces were probably a byproduct of the nosedive, not the cause; a preliminary report is due in about a month, with a final probable cause likely more than a year away.
No link to Mar-a-Lago, investigators say
Asked about the crash occurring less than 10 miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and any possible connection to Secret Service operations, Chapman dismissed a link. “There is no evidence of connection. Purely coincidence,” he said, according to Fox News coverage of the briefing. Tuesday was the NTSB’s last on-site briefing, and further updates will be posted on the board’s website and X account, while crews prepare to drain the impact crater to recover additional components. For the families of the nine people on board, the recovered tail section narrows the questions investigators must answer, and moves the inquiry from speculation toward evidence that can be examined in a laboratory.
