The Florida plane crash that killed technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, their two children and five other people may have involved parts separating from the aircraft before impact, according to the Associated Press. Investigators have not determined why the Learjet 60 went down, but flight data and crew communications have provided a disturbing outline of its final minutes.
The aircraft was travelling from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas on Sunday. Robinson and his family planned to celebrate his birthday there. The flight departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at about 9:37 a.m. Central time and crashed roughly two hours and 45 minutes later in a residential area of Palm Beach County.
What investigators know about the final descent
The crew reported clear ice, precipitation and turbulence while flying at 35,000 feet, according to the Associated Press. They requested permission to climb to 37,000 feet, then declared an emergency within about 30 seconds.
KUT reported that one of the pilots said, “We’re going to crash into the ground,” in a final transmission.
The jet then descended at rates reaching 30,000 feet per minute and exceeded its design-speed limits. National Transportation Safety Board investigators also found evidence suggesting components may have separated before impact. That does not establish whether an in-flight breakup caused the crash or resulted from another failure during the uncontrolled descent.
Aviation consultant John Cox told the Associated Press that the combination of turbulence and freezing precipitation described by the crew would have terrified him. About 20 NTSB investigators were assigned to the case, and teams were searching for the cockpit voice recorder. No probable cause has been announced.
Reports have used slightly different location descriptions. The Associated Press corrected its initial reporting to identify Greenacres, while the NTSB investigation page lists Lake Worth Beach. Both are in Palm Beach County, where around 600 residents of a nearby mobile-home community were evacuated during the investigation.
Who was aboard the Learjet 60
All nine people on board were killed:
- Adam Robinson, 44
- His wife, Helen Sharp, 40
- Their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2
- Family friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr
- The children’s nanny, Anita Maria Cetina
- Captain Jeff Gregory, 55
- Copilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20
Early reports described the aircraft as the family’s private jet. KUT reported that it was instead operating as a commercial on-demand charter run by Aurora Aviation under the name Upper Jets. That distinction will matter as investigators review the operator, crew experience and aircraft maintenance history, rather than treating the flight as a privately managed family trip.
Robinson had told a friend life was going well
Days before the crash, Robinson told his friend Jesse Ouellette that life was “going too well.” Ouellette said Robinson’s businesses were growing and that his family was happy after moving to Aspen, Colorado.
Robinson founded the marketing technology companies Retention.com and RB2B. Ouellette described him as someone who challenged established ways of working and was “far ahead of his time.”
“His loss will be deeply felt by the software founders who knew him as a friend and colleague,” Ouellette said.
Former Rice University basketball coach Willis Wilson also remembered Robinson, a former player, as “such an uplifting guy who was loved by his teammates and coaches,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
Sharp led Influential PR and had recently opened a ceramics business following the family’s move to Aspen. In a statement released Monday, relatives described Robinson and Sharp as devoted parents and said Emma and Charlie were the light of their lives.
The evidence now points investigators toward a demanding technical sequence involving icing, turbulence, extreme speed and possible structural separation. Recovering the cockpit voice recorder could help establish what happened inside the flight deck, but for now the cause remains undetermined.
