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Cockpit simulation of tragic Florida Learjet crash shows what pilots may have seen in last 60 seconds
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A simulation from the cockpit of the doomed Learjet60 has been shared online, and it shows what could have been the final moments of those on board.
On November 1, the Bahamas-bound private jet was flying over Florida after taking off from Austin, Texas.
The aircraft was flying at 35,000 ft before plummeting to the ground in just 76 seconds and bursting into a ball of flames.
The horrific incident resulted in the deaths of all nine on board, all of whom have been identified.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says its investigation found that most of the Learjet 60's left elevator was recovered in three pieces, scattered up to 3.8 miles from the crash site.
Recorded audio between crew members, 55-year-old captain Jeff Gregory and 20-year-old co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras was also made public.
It further revealed that they were warned about weather conditions by Air Traffic Control (ATC).
Now, a new simulation of the crash has provided a new perspective on events.
New simulation of the Learjet crash
The computer-generated simulation has been uploaded to the YouTube channel This Got Interesting.
A number of things went wrong prior to the crash, and this video depicts these events from the perspective of the pilots, with the aircraft's position, altitude, ground speed and track come from public ADS-B data.
They further state: "Pitch, bank, airspeed, engine gauges, weather and the cockpit details are estimates or illustrations."
No real audio was used, with different voices being used with an unofficial transcript of the recording.
The point-of-view of the pilots reveals how terrifying the sudden drop in altitude was, and how the plane went from 35,000 ft to zero in over a minute.
All data ended at 8,750 ft, as this was when the last data was recorded.
The simulation also depicts pieces flying off the aircraft, though these are only illustrative, as the NTSB has not confirmed when they came off.
Those on board included entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 44, his wife Helen Sharp, their four-year-old daughter Emma, and their two-year-old son Charlie.
The family was traveling with their nanny, Anita Maria Apellido Cetina, and two close friends, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.
The investigation is currently ongoing.
The Learjet may have been under extreme conditions
Retired former Northwest Airlines pilot Captain David Funk told Law&Crime Network that the elevator, positioned at the top of the tail, would only break off at extreme pressure, adding that the aircraft would need to be 'overstressed and it takes a lot of force to pull an elevator off the airplane'.
He explained that tracking information revealed the jet 'gained 15,000, maybe 20,000ft in less than 20 minutes' due to a developing storm in the area.
The former pilot also claimed, like other aviation experts recently, that when the jet climbed above 30,000 feet, 'severe turbulence and rapidly developing clear icing is a possibility'.
He said that this model could only withstand certain speeds between its maximum operating speed and stall speed.
"If either one of those is exceeded, the airplane either goes into Mach tuck where the nose tucks down because of the severe drag that's caused by exceeding its maximum Mach number or it stalls," Funk warned.