Florida plane crash: Aviation attorney on nosedive Learjet crash that killed 9

This is the video, you might have seen it over the weekend. It's just shocking. A plane literally appears to fall out of the sky, nosedives into a Palm Beach County neighborhood. Nine people were on that plane. Yeah, just came out yesterday and, you know, still trying to figure out what's happened. There is audio, and if you've scrolled, you've heard it probably. We're not going to play it here as far as the cockpit goes, but it's disturbing. And, you know, first thing I thought of was our Learjet crash here in the northeast a year and a half ago or whatever it was. That was a Learjet 55. This was reportedly a Learjet 60. So let's bring in aviation attorney John Gagliano. To get your reaction, John, on what you've seen, what you've heard, maybe you've heard that cockpit recording with this plane descending, according to that, at 22,000 feet per minute or something like that. What do you make of this crash so far from what you've heard? I did hear the recording. It's really chilling. And I did see the video. The first thing I saw, I thought of when I saw the video was that that plane was out of control. The same thing I thought when we had the Lear 55 crash here in Philly. They're both Lears and both of them, I thought, were out of control. That was my first impression. Of course, the Lear 60 in West Palm Beach over the weekend. came down for a lot longer time because they were a lot higher and that audio recording from from the co-pilot is is really disturbing. So here's my question. How does this happen? Like how does it get out of control? Like is it you know I think we think about the malfunction with the instruments. Is it that type of thing? It could certainly be that type of thing. There There are many, many things that could cause an aircraft to go out of control. Some of them are, look, autopilot, trim system, control system, something falling off of the aircraft, something that the pilots did intentionally or inadvertently. Definitely. You know, there are downdrafts with weather. You know, there's something called a microburst that's associated with thunderstorms that push aircraft down very quickly. That's not likely in this scenario, but there are just so many Things that could potentially put an aircraft out of control that, you know, a really intense investigation is required here. It's South Florida, right? But it was coming from Texas. I think I've seen in some of the reporting that it needed to be de-iced. Is it because they're that is it way colder up there in that part of the atmosphere? Or is that a term that I'm listening to? I really don't know what it Well, de-icing is something that generally happens on the ground, and it happens in Philly all winter long. They put the aircraft over on the side, and they spray it with that fluid. But every time an aircraft goes up into the upper atmosphere, the potential for icing exists because the atmosphere gets colder the higher you go up. So if there's visible moisture and the aircraft is near freezing, then you could get icing on the aircraft. Well, John, I don't know anything about private aviation, but I've heard a lot of criticism directed toward Lear jets in particular. What can you tell us about why? I mean, is it just a coincidence here that we had this crash here and that one there and there's been others as well? Or is it this particular aircraft that could be problematic? Well, it's certainly too soon to say if there's a link. Again, there needs to be a complete investigation. But I can tell you this about both Lear jets and particularly about the Lear 60. It was certified to fly in moderate turbulence. It was certified to fly into moderate icing. And it was certified to fly into moderate precipitation. So there's no way that the jet should have come down. It tells me that there was a problem. And I don't know where that problem was yet. I suspect that it was something mechanically wrong. How long? I can't really give you anything else, but I don't think that any pilot, you know, would have put a plane in this situation intentionally or unintentionally. And if even a pilot made an, you know, an inadvertent mistake, there's no way an aircraft should fall out of the sky like this. Yeah. I've also heard criticism about, you know, this co-pilot was allegedly 20 years old and, you know, fully licensed and everything, I suppose. She won some awards, too. Yeah. What do you make of that age, people criticizing how young and maybe inexperienced that may be? Look, this plane is operated with a crew. It was operated with a crew. So there was an experienced captain flying with her. I don't think the fact that she was 20 years old has anything to do with anything. She had all of the licenses that were required. She went to flight school here in the U.S. She had some of the best training in the world. By all accounts, she was a very capable pilot. She was living her dream being a pilot, and she was working as part of a flight crew. True. So anything that was going on was not her decision unilaterally, but the crews put their heads together and tried to come up with the best options and do their best to keep the plane safe in accordance with the checklists that they're given from the manufacturer. All right. John Gagliano, thank you so much. We appreciate your insight. It's just shocking, and I'm sure we're going to be talking about it for days and weeks to come. Yeah, absolutely, as the investigation could take that long, if not months. John Gagliano, thank you very much.