Horrified residents described the aftermath of a private jet nosediving to the groundand exploding near a Florida mobile home community — killing nine people on board and forcing hundreds on the ground to evacuate.
Local Anthony Blackmon told NBC6he was about 500 feet from the Learjet 60 when it plummeted straight to the Earth and erupted into a fireball in Greenacres around 1:25 p.m. Sunday.
“Debris was everywhere. Debris hit my house. Everything was on fire. The road was on fire,” Blackmon told the outlet. “I’ve always seen it on the news, never thought it would happen so close to somebody like how it happened today.”
Another nearby resident, Roger Forcelle, said he felt the Bahamas-bound aircraft, believed to be worth $2 million, pass over his house moments before the terrifying crash.
“It shook the whole house. It went right over us and crashed probably less than half a mile from where I live,” Forcelle said.
“Everybody came out of their houses because you could feel it shaking.”
Forcelle said he saw a massive cloud of smoke rising from the area, and he couldn’t return home after leaving to run errands.
Another resident said it “looked like a meteor hit the ground” after the jet — which took off from Austin, Texas — smashed into a roadway.
All nine people on board were killed in the crash, Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy confirmed.
Miraculously, there have not yet been any reports of people on the ground who were killed or injured, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A shocking dashcam video captured the jet rapidly plummeting into the ground and exploding into a massive plume of fire and smoke.
A pilot aboard the doomed plane was also heard in air traffic control audiouttering the last words, “holy f–k, we’re out of time” before crashing.
The jet’s forceful impact left debris strewn over a “significant distance,” forcing roughly 600 people, including those in an adjacent mobile home park, to evacuate as federal investigators begin investigating the scene.
“Right now our priority is evacuating the adjacent community right behind. We have about 600 people that we have to make sure have shelter tonight, food,” Joel Flores, Palm Beach County Commissioner for District 3, said at a press conference Sunday evening.
DeSantis described the plane crash as “cataclysmic” and a “tragic way to see people pass away.”
“Obviously, this was a cataclysmic plane crash. It looked like a missile going down. It left a big crater on the side of the road,” DeSantis told reporters.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it has initiated a “go-team” to arrive on the scene on Sunday night and Monday morning.
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