Florida Learjet crash investigators dig up engine piece after pilots warned of rough weather ahead

Federal investigators have recovered part of an engine from the Learjet that slammed into the ground Sunday in Greenacres, Florida, killing all nine people aboard.

Crews started excavating the site Wednesday, once utility workers had drained water and cleared other hazards, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. The Learjet 60 left Austin-Bergstrom International Airport around 10:37 a.m. Sunday, bound for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. Just before 1 p.m., it plunged into Palm Beach County, killing everyone aboard.

Once digging began, investigators uncovered a portion of one engine, officials said, noting that debris had also turned up on the roofs of nearby homes and buildings.

Earlier in the week, investigators recovered the left tail elevator, which controls the jet's pitch, in three separate pieces, one of them nearly four miles from where the Learjet 60 went down.

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National Transportation Safety Board member Thomas B. Chapman called the part a "very important piece of evidence" when he spoke to reporters Tuesday.

"Even small pieces of the wreckage may contain important evidence that could help investigators determine what happened," the agency wrote on social media.

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At approximately 41,000 feet, an air traffic controller notified the flight crew that moderate precipitation was located five miles away and indicated they could deviate either left or right, noting the turn toward Freeport in the Bahamas "looks pretty bad."

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The crew was subsequently directed to proceed to a waypoint near Naples, Florida.

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A short time later, after making a deviation toward Palm Beach County, the flight crew indicated that weather conditions were deteriorating, reporting to air traffic control that there was icing and turbulence, asking the controller if there was a "better ride" ahead.

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Heavy rain and thunderstorms were sweeping across South Florida when the Learjet went down, and federal investigators say the weather will be a major focus of their probe.

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Austin tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, 45, was killed in the crash alongside his wife, Helen Sharp, 40, their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, the children's nanny, Anita Maria Cetina, and couple Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr.

The jet was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder, but investigators haven't found it and can't yet confirm it was on board when the plane went down, NTSB officials said.

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