The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has finally recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the November 1 crash of a Learjet 60 in Florida.
The CVR has been sent to the NTSB’s Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for analysis.
The hope is that the voice recorder can shed light on the minutes leading up to the horrific crash and provide answers as to what caused the plane to go down so rapidly.
NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 60 that crashed on Nov. 1 near Greenacres, Florida. The CVR was located at the site of initial impact. The CVR is being evaluated in the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The excavation work at the impact site has been completed.
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) November 9, 2026
The Learjet was over two hours into its flight from Texas to the Bahamas on November 1 when it plummeted to the ground near Greenacres, Florida, killing all nine people on board.
The crash was caught on video from multiple angles, and recordings in which co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras explained the dire situation to air traffic control quickly went viral on social media.
A Learjet 60 private jet, en route from Texas to the Bahamas, crashed near Palm Beach this afternoon. The aircraft was in a steep dive at the time of the crash, descending at more than 30k feet per minute. https://t.co/1fjqcbtZFe
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) November 1, 2026
The recordings begin with Filgueiras calmly exchanging information with ATC about ice, weather conditions, and turbulence. She then requests to climb to 37,000 feet due to rain, but seconds later, an increasingly distressed Filgueiras puts out a distress call.
“722 Bravo Delta, we’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” she tells ATC.
Filgueiras and ATC engage in a brief exchange before the situation rapidly escalates.
"Declared an emergency 722 Bravo Delta, we are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute,” Filgueiras says. “… We’re gonna crash into the ground, 722 Bravo Delta.”
The ATC operator attempts to reassure her and get her to talk to him — but it’s too late.
In a chilling moment, as the pilot appears to be reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the background, Filgueiras can be heard one last time: “Look outside, Jeff, look outside. Holy [expletive]. We’re out of time!”
As the excavation and recovery have continued, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy urged Florida residents on X to turn in any wreckage they might find.
A potential clue came when NTSB board member Tom Chapman said that “the majority of the aircraft’s left elevator was located in three pieces within a range about 1.3 to 3.8 miles away from the accident site.”
The left elevator controls the pitch of the airplane — though it’s unclear if it broke off prior to the emergency or as a result of the plane’s rapid descent.
The NTSB's preliminary report is expected in the coming weeks.