A family of four with ties to Austin, including two children ages 4 and 2, were among nine people killed Sunday when a business jet bound for the Bahamas crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to a joint statement from the victims' families.
The families identified the seven passengers as Adam Robinson; his wife, Helen Sharp; their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2; Rachael Reed; Charmi Fehr; and Anita Maria Cetina.
Robinson was the founder and CEO of Retention.com and RB2b, marketing technology companies that helped businesses identify visitors to their websites. Sharp was CEO and founding partner of Influential PR. In recent months, she started a ceramics company and moved to Aspen, Colorado, according to her website.
The families called Robinson and Sharp "devoted parents" and said their young children were "the light of their lives."
The statement described Reed and Fehr as partners who were "full of joy and adventure." It said Cetina cared for Emma and Charlie "with tenderness and devotion, and she was truly part of the family."
Federal investigators said Monday that the crew of a business jet that left Austin reported ice building up on the aircraft and turbulence strong enough to push it hundreds of feet up or down shortly before the plane plunged toward the ground.
Two pilots also died when the Learjet 60 crashed on a road in a residential area of Palm Beach County shortly before noon Austin time Sunday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
One man suffered a leg injury while driving away from the area, investigators said. There have been no other reports of people on the ground being hurt.
Government officials have not released the victims' names or determined what caused the crash. The New York Times and New York Post reported that 20-year-old Nathalia Filgueiras of Boca Raton was one of the pilots. Her mother identified her to the two newspapers, but authorities have not confirmed her identity.
Federal Aviation Administration records show Filgueiras held a commercial pilot certificate and a rating that allowed her to fly the Learjet 60 but not to serve as the pilot in command.
About 400 people were evacuated from the surrounding neighborhood, which includes dozens of mobile homes, while crews searched for pieces of the plane. Investigators described a debris field about half a mile long, with small pieces of the aircraft scattered across ball fields, businesses and residential properties.
The airplane left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at about 9:37 a.m. for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, NTSB board member Tom Chapman said during the agency's first briefing since the fatal crash.
Public flight-tracking data placed the jet on the airport's ramp near Signature Aviation before takeoff. Signature is one of three fixed-base operators at ABIA, which provide services such as fueling, parking and passenger amenities. A person who answered the phone at Signature said someone would return a call to KUT News.
At around 11:47 a.m. Central time, while flying at 35,000 feet, the crew told air traffic controllers they were encountering light, clear ice and moderate turbulence. Clear ice is a transparent glaze that forms on aircraft when water droplets hit the plane and spread out before freezing.
The crew described the ice as manageable, Chapman said.
The turbulence was causing the jet's altitude to vary by about 700 feet. The crew then reported precipitation and asked to climb to 37,000 feet. Air traffic control approved the request.
Less than 30 seconds later, the crew reported that the plane was descending and declared an emergency. The pilots reported descent rates of 10,000 and then 20,000 feet per minute. One pilot said they were in an overspeed condition, meaning the jet was moving faster than its allowable limit.
"We're going to crash into the ground," a panicked pilot radioed air traffic control as she reported altitude readings and the angle at which the plane was banking. The plane crashed at about 11:51 a.m. Central time.
Local officials said formally identifying the victims could take time because DNA would need to be matched.
"It's a lengthy process, so I wouldn't assume anything right away," Palm Beach County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo said.
Investigators have early indications that the plane may have begun breaking apart before impact.
"We've just begun our documentation. We have a lot of work to do on scene," NTSB investigator in charge Tim Monville said. "This will be a several-day process, and the biggest obstacle that we're going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway."
About 20 NTSB investigators are working on the case.
The NTSB said the airplane was operated by Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jets. The agency described the flight as a Part 135 operation, which covers on-demand commercial services such as charter flights and air taxis.
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