Investigators have recovered most of the left elevator from the Learjet that crashed in Greenacres, Florida, confirming the aircraft began breaking apart in flight before it struck the ground and killed all nine people on board.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Tom Chapman said at a news conference Tuesday that the elevator, which controls the plane’s pitch, was found in three separate pieces between roughly 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the impact site near West Palm Beach.
The discovery established that the jet was coming apart before the final impact, he said.
Key components of the jet’s tail may have been lost during the turbulence or as it nose-dived, making the plane impossible to control, according to Jeff Guzzetti, a former investigator for the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration. …