00:00Well, good afternoon, and for those of you who were here yesterday, again, my name is
00:04Tom Chapman.
00:05I'm a board member with the National Transportation Safety Board.
00:09To recap, our full team arrived yesterday, and our investigator in charge, Timothy Monville,
00:15is back at the scene today with the rest of our investigators.
00:19They're continuing the work necessary to thoroughly document the accident and to gather critical
00:24evidence.
00:25I had an opportunity to visit the site myself, both yesterday afternoon and again about
00:30three hours ago.
00:33We are aware now, as I'm sure you are, of the names of the victims of this tragedy.
00:39We're keeping them in our thoughts, as I'm sure you are.
00:44I do want to provide a brief update on NTSB's activities investigating the crash of a Learjet
00:5260 aircraft here in Palm Beach County.
00:56I want to manage expectations and emphasize that yesterday marked the first full day on
01:01the scene for our investigative team.
01:03We don't have a lot of new information to share here today, but we do have some updates
01:08that we believe you will find helpful.
01:12Severe storms moved through the area late yesterday that hampered some response activities.
01:17However, our team, along with our local and state partners, have been working diligently
01:22so affected members of the community can return to their homes and businesses.
01:27We understand authorities are very close to making limited access available for local residents.
01:33Here are additional details about our efforts so far.
01:37Today, our primary activities include documenting and collecting airplane wreckage with the
01:44support of other federal, state, and local authorities.
01:47Yesterday, the majority of the aircraft's left elevator was located in three pieces within
01:54a range about 1.3 to 3.8 miles away from the accident site.
02:00Those items are being retained for analysis.
02:04For those not as familiar with aircraft components, the elevator is a control surface located on
02:10the tail, which controls the up and down pitch of the aircraft.
02:15I want to repeat what I emphasized yesterday, which is if members of the community come across
02:22items that they believe may be part of the aircraft or the aircraft wreckage, please don't
02:28touch them or move them.
02:29Please contact NTSB or local authorities and we will take appropriate action.
02:36NTSB is working with local Public Works teams to begin water removal from the impact crater
02:42so our investigation in and around the crater can begin.
02:46We believe that will begin tomorrow in terms of being able to access the crater.
02:51A key step was the removal of an unstable utility pole this morning and that took quite a bit
02:56of work and Public Works folks were terrific in the work that they did, which is frankly
03:01very dangerous work.
03:03We were happy to see that happen because that helps us now access the crater and begin to
03:09stabilize it.
03:10We expect to find critical airplane components within the crater.
03:15Witnesses have been quite helpful.
03:17I understand that we have now received dash cam footage and multiple eyewitness accounts
03:22that will help us better understand the condition of the aircraft and the circumstances of the
03:27crash.
03:29NTSB's Transportation Disaster Assistance Team continues to work with family members and displaced
03:35local residents to be sure they are being connected to the resources that they need.
03:41I want to again express our sincere appreciation to the State of Florida, Palm Beach County,
03:47the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, and all of the local authorities and first responders
03:53who have done such incredible work.
03:55Their assistance and coordination with the NTSB has been invaluable.
04:01I want to note this will be our last on-site briefing.
04:04Any additional updates will be posted on the NTSB website and through our media relations
04:09account on X.
04:11With that, I want to thank you again for your interest.
04:14I'm happy to take questions.
04:16Please state your name and identify your affiliation if I call on you.
04:19Yes, sir.
04:19Thank you so much.
04:20Jessica with NBC News.
04:22We talked about finding pieces of the elevator.
04:25Based on what you found from the tail and where you found it, what does that tell you
04:29about the likelihood this plane was falling apart in the sky?
04:32Well, certainly it tells us that at least some components, some pieces of the aircraft, important
04:38pieces of the aircraft separated before the impact.
04:41What that means exactly in terms of what caused the aircraft to lose control or whether the
04:48loss of this piece was a result of the forces on the aircraft, we don't know yet.
04:52So it's going to take some more analysis.
04:53But finding that piece is a very, very significant bit of evidence.
04:59Roy Ramos with Local 10 News.
05:01How confident are you that you will find critical pieces of that aircraft, like the black box,
05:07within that crater?
05:08Much of that aircraft is disintegrating.
05:11Yeah, it's going to be a lot of work.
05:13We have terrific folks.
05:15I feel confident that they're going to find the evidence that they need within that crater,
05:20despite the challenges, I feel confident they're going to find what they need to help put together,
05:24what happened here, and why it happened.
05:27Yes, ma'am?
05:28Terry Parker, WPBF 25.
05:30Yesterday you mentioned how critical the weather may be had played a part in this.
05:35Given that, have you gotten very far in looking at the plane's maintenance schedule to find
05:41out, for example, was the radar working?
05:43That's ongoing, and I don't think we have enough information yet to be able to say one way
05:48or another.
05:48But weather does remain a major...
05:50Weather is certainly a key focus of the investigation.
05:53Yes, sir?
05:54Ted Scalton, CBS News Miami.
05:55Have you been able to look into the certifications of the pilot and co-pilot, and was everyone certified
06:01or someone certified to fly that?
06:03That work is ongoing.
06:05I know that our team, early in any investigation, that's one of the first things they begin looking
06:10at.
06:11I don't have that information yet and don't have anything to share with you today.
06:14Yes, sir?
06:15Just a bit of a unique quality of this incident is that it happened less than 10 miles from
06:20the President of the United States home.
06:22I'm curious, compared to when you investigate other crashes, is there an added layer here
06:27in terms of probing the Secret Service's protocols and what was going on at Mar-a-Lago
06:32that day and how, you know, their systems and whatever, you know, protective measures they
06:38have may have in any way, you know, attributed or spotted things?
06:42Yeah, there's no evidence at all that there's any connection there.
06:46It's entirely coincidental in terms of the location of the accident site, but no, nothing
06:51at all that indicates any connection.
06:53Is that an agency you directly checked with to confirm that or it's just nothing has pointed
06:58to that right now?
06:58Nothing has pointed us that direction.
07:00Our people may have contacted Secret Service.
07:03They often talk with various agencies in the course of an investigation.
07:07I'm not aware they've done that.
07:09It wouldn't surprise me if they had, but again, there's nothing pointing us in that direction.
07:13Yes, ma'am?
07:13Pardon me, Sarah, the Palm Beach Post.
07:16As you mentioned, not only the weather play a factor in the crash itself, but I'm assuming
07:21it's playing a factor in looking for the pieces that were found and whatnot.
07:24It's been continuously raining for days on end.
07:27Has that caused staffers with the NTSB to work faster than normal, maybe to try to find
07:33things before they get covered in maybe mud or washed away, whatever it may be?
07:37Well, I can't say that it's causing them to work faster, but it certainly is something
07:42that's hanging over the investigation as a key challenge.
07:46This isn't the first time we've had to deal with challenges like that, but obviously,
07:50it does make it difficult, not just for us, but for the other folks that are working out
07:54there, state and local agencies, public works people.
07:58This is hard work, and it's a difficult scene, no question about it.
08:03Yes, ma'am?
08:04You mentioned about the tail elevator being found.
08:07Does that indicate to you that it was separate from the plane before impact, or could the impact
08:12have sheared that long?
08:13No, the distance from the site indicates that it separated before impact.
08:18And how far did you say it was?
08:20It's a range of, let me get the numbers correct here.
08:23The range, I'm told, was from about 1.3 to 3.8 miles away.
08:301.3 to 3.8 miles away, so quite some distance away from the accident site.
08:35So it seems implausible that it would have been a result of the impact.
08:40It would have separated before the impact.
08:42And how would that impact the plane itself using that elevator?
08:46Well, at the speed the aircraft was traveling, I'm not sure it would have been effective,
08:51but the function of the elevator is to control pitch up and down.
08:58At those speeds, I don't know that it would have been effective, even if it had still been
09:04attached to the aircraft.
09:06But knowing that it was lost is a very important piece of evidence in terms of pointing us towards
09:11other things to investigate.
09:13Such as can you say what?
09:14What type of thing?
09:15Well, in terms of whether a piece like that was lost may have contributed to the crash itself,
09:24or whether the forces on the aircraft caused that to separate.
09:28We don't know that yet, but those are the two likely possibilities that we'll want to examine.
09:34Yes, sir.
09:35Captain Steve Arroyo, Aviation News Updates.
09:39With weather being a key factor in the investigation,
09:43and with flight operations and air traffic control investigations thus far,
09:50has there been any talk about the phenomena of mock-tuck and that being a contributing factor in the accident?
10:01I don't think we're far enough along in the investigation.
10:04The folks we have who are really experts in this area I'm sure are going to be looking at factors
10:08at that,
10:08but that's frankly beyond my level of expertise.
10:11The smart people in NTSB will be looking at those things.
10:15Yes, sir?
10:15Back to the elevator, because of the speed that it was descending,
10:19it was faster than the plane is able to go.
10:23Could it have been the thought that it perhaps fell apart?
10:26That is certainly one possibility, certainly one possibility.
10:30Can you clarify where those pieces were found?
10:33Were they in the backyard of a resident?
10:34I don't know the location, no.
10:38Yes, sir?
10:38Our team yesterday saw some federal investigators, whether they were from NTSB or FAA or another agency,
10:44gathering material from an office in Fort Lauderdale where it was the office of the co-pilots company.
10:53Far away from the crash site, you speak to what would you be gathering from the offices of the flight
11:00crew that you couldn't get from your own database?
11:02Records.
11:04Records.
11:04What about them specifically?
11:06About the plane?
11:07Yeah.
11:07Well, I don't know which office specifically, but we certainly at this stage of an investigation are making visits to
11:15remote locations,
11:16remote from the accident site, to gather and document key records, aircraft maintenance, crew records, crew performance, those sorts of
11:29things.
11:29So I'm not sure exactly what your folks saw, but that wouldn't be unusual at all for an investigation at
11:35this stage.
11:36Last question.
11:37Yes, sir?
11:39WPTV.
11:40Are you able to share the amount of evidence of pieces that have come from the aircraft?
11:46There's a lot.
11:47They're almost entirely very small pieces, so we don't really even, in most cases, know what it is we've found.
11:56Our people will be sorting through that, and they're good at kind of putting that puzzle back together.
12:01But you've seen the video, you know, with the force of that impact.
12:09Even the elements of the aircraft that are in the crater are going to be very likely in smaller pieces.
12:17So we don't know exactly what all we have yet, but that's part of the investigation very early here.
12:23It's a big puzzle to try to put together.
12:25Once you have all the pieces, do you plan on, like, trying to rebuild the aircraft?
12:29Or what's the procedure for that?
12:31What we often do is we essentially try to not literally reassemble the aircraft, but we try to lay out
12:41the aircraft in their facilities.
12:44We're able to do this.
12:46Lay it out in such a way that we can try to identify as much as possible the shape, the
12:53form, the location of the various components that we've found.
12:58And sometimes that helps us identify something that may have occurred, which may not be obvious.
13:06The force of this impact very, very severely damaged the remnants of the wreckage.
13:13And so I don't know how realistic it is that we're going to be able to do that.
13:17But that is a possibility in terms of the investigation as it goes forward.
13:20Thank you all, again, very much.
13:23Keep an eye on our website and also our ex-feed.
13:25There may be additional updates.
