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West Palm Beach Learjet crash leaves no visible debris
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An expert has revealed the reason that there appeared to be no debris in the huge crater left after a Learjet crash in Florida yesterday.
The horrific incident saw the private plane crash into the ground ‘like a missile’ and police have confirmed that all nine people on board were killed.
West Palm Beach Learjet crash kills nine
The identities of those on board have not been released so far, but it has been confirmed that everyone on board the Learjet 60 died in the impact, which caused a huge fireball and left a smouldering crater behind it.
There have so far been no casualties reported on the ground, but at least one mobile home was damaged and 600 people were evacuated as a precaution.
Distressing audio from within the cockpit has since been released, as well as several videos that captured the moment that the plane struck the ground.
Among several questions asked after viewing the footage - aside from the behaviour of a few bystanders - was about the wreckage of the plane.
In one piece of footage showing the impact site, it appears as if there is no debris.
Why is there no debris visible at the impact site?
There are a few reasons behind this, and it won’t be clear until we have the full report, but already a few experts have given their take on why the crash site might show little evidence that a plane was ever there.
Firstly, this was a plane that was running out of control, over the speed that it is supposed to be safe at, and hitting the floor with extreme force.
Sad though it is, this probably means that all on board were killed instantaneously.
After reviewing the crash footage, Mary Schiavo, an aviation expert, said: "That is not a controlled descent,
"It’s clear, whatever happened, they had lost control of the plane.”
In the audio from the cockpit, the person on the radio can be heard to say that the plane is ‘overspeed’ and therefore may have been travelling as fast as 32,000 feet per second, or over 360 miles per hour.
That means that things could have broken off the plane, and the resulting explosion could have destroyed most of the plane - including even the remarkably hardy flght recorder.
The debris itself could also have been spread beyond the crater and exact point of impact.
There have been reports of significant debris spread over a wider area and residents have also reported debris hitting their homes.
Another reason that the debris might not be immediately visible
One more key reason that no debris might be visible - which has led to some bizarre theories online - is that the video could simply be oscuring it.
After all, this is an amateur handheld video taken in the aftermath of a terrible disaster, which has caused a lot of fire and smoke, which could obscure the reality of the crash site.
Once the investigators get into the situation, things should start to become a lot clearer, and we’ll hopefully find out the full details of this tragedy.