Former Marine One Commander talks about deadly plane crash

First up at 11, we're learning more details about the victims of yesterday's horrific plane crash in Palm Beach. Nine people were killed when a private jet that took off from Austin, Texas, bound for the Bahamas. Adam and Helen Robinson of Austin, Texas, and their two children, four-year-old Emma and two-year-old Charlie. Adam and Helen are described by family members as devoted parents who were warm, generous, and touched countless lives. Their two friends were also on board, Charmi Thayer and Rachel Reed. They were killed in the crash as well. They are described by loved ones as full of joy and adventure and all in on each other. The family's nanny, Anita Maria Satina, was also on board that plane. Her family says she loved the Robinsons' two kids with such tenderness and devotion. She was truly a part of the family as well. And the co-pilot of the plane identified as 20-year-old Natalia Gadelha Filguerrera. Now, she grew up in Palm Beach County, and she was just 17 years old when she earned her private pilot's license. While attending West Boca Raton High School, and the pilot who was in command, 55-year-old Jeff Gregory, also died in the crash. As those families are trying to come to terms with this tragedy, investigators are trying to figure out exactly what happened there in the air. Let's join now, we're joined now by Captain Ron Alvarado. He's a pilot and the former commander of Marine One. Thank you for your time tonight, Captain Alvarado. Thank you for having me. So let's talk about the suddenness of how this happened. The Learjet 60, it reportedly plunged from an altitude of 27,000 feet to the ground in just two minutes. So in terms of what those pilots were dealing with, aerodynamic forces, the cockpit workload, when a plane is plunging like that, what does that mean for the pilots as they're fighting to recover control? Well, first of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the loved ones of the deceased. But the forces that these poor pilots and the passengers had to deal with was just overwhelming to descend that quickly. More than likely, it looks like icing, definitely weather was a factor. But again, don't wanna speculate, but according to the NTSB, that's what they'll be focusing on. So to answer your question that the forces on the body For the poor souls aboard that aircraft, you can imagine being on a roller coaster, just clearly dropping to the earth. It's very unsettling. And the fact that this co-pilot was able to continue to talk on the radio was just incredible. So kudos to her. Again, a 20-year-old co-pilot. Lost in this as well. Captain, so you did mention the ice. We heard over the air traffic control communications, the pilots talking about ice at first, thinking it was manageable. Also mentioned turbulence. How could ice building up directly lead to this kind of unrecoverable dive? Well, there was the icing conditions in the area. I've flown in and out of that area, all three airports in that facility, Southern Florida there. So icing near thunderstorms is prevalent. And we can only surmise that potentially the pitot tubes, which will give you airspeed indications in the flight deck, could have been iced up. So erroneous indications would have been in the flight deck. And then also something to keep in mind, if there are icing Clear ice all over the wings, that means lift will not be provided on the wings and therefore there will be no lift. The aircraft will stall, which will create an unmanageable situation and an overspeed, which was mentioned in the recordings. So that's obviously part of the investigation there. On the ground, we saw the huge fireball there, the crash, the impact site. What are investigators of the NTSB, what are they prioritizing at the crash site in the first 24 to 48 hours? Well, in a mishap like this, an accident like this, in every investigation, the NTSB and the FAA are focusing on three elements. The first one is going to be meteorological, so weather. They're gonna look at the weather. They've already talked about that. Again, they're not gonna point any fingers or speculate. The second is gonna be human factors. They're gonna look at the pilots. They're going to look at their training records and also the company that they worked for. Third will be the systems of the airframe, so equipment. They're Going to look at the aircraft, the maintenance records, were there any defects with the aircraft. So those three elements they will be focusing on for the first 30 days before they come out with the preliminary report. We got to leave it there. Captain Ron Alvarado, thank you so much for your time. And as you echoed off the top of that, of course, we're all thinking and praying for the families of the nine lives that were lost there in that plane crash yesterday in Florida. Thank you, Captain. Thank you.