Investigators have recovered the Learjet 60’s left elevator in three pieces, found as far as 3.8 miles from the Palm Beach County, Florida, crash site. The National Transportation Safety Board is retaining the components for analysis. The November 1 accident killed all nine people aboard. Investigators have not determined whether the elevator separated before the aircraft lost control or during its rapid descent.
NTSB member Thomas Chapman described the recovery at an on-site briefing on November 3. The pieces were located between about 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the impact site. Their distribution indicates that at least some aircraft parts separated before impact, but does not establish when the elevator came away or what caused the crash.
The elevator is a tail control surface that governs pitch. Its condition and the damage to the recovered pieces may help investigators reconstruct the aircraft’s final flight and assess the sequence of events. The Learjet was in an overspeed condition and descending rapidly, but the investigation has not established whether the elevator’s separation contributed to the loss of control or resulted from the forces acting on the aircraft during the descent.