Courtesy: Aki Kuusisto via Storyful
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Officials are investigating what caused a private jet to nose-dive into a residential area in Florida, killing all nine people aboard on Sunday.
Federal investigators returned to the scene near Palm Springs on Tuesday to collect scattered wreckage after determining an essential tail control surface separated from the plane before it crashed.
NTSB aircraft crash investigation
What we know:
A private business jet traveling from Texas to the Bahamas crashed near a residential Florida area Sunday afternoon, killing nine people aboard and forcing hundreds of nearby residents to evacuate, according to officials.
National Transportation Safety Board Member Tom Chapman announced Tuesday that the plane's left elevator broke into pieces and fell between 1.3 to 3.8 miles away from the main crash site. Investigators located the elevator pieces on Monday and say they are using them for technical analysis.
The elevator is a tail control surface that dictates the pitch of the airplane, according to the NTSB. The distance from the crash crater makes it implausible that the surface broke during ground impact, Chapman said.
Investigators are weighing two primary scenarios: whether the separation caused the plane to lose control, or if extreme forces ripped the structure away mid-flight. Severe weather swept through the area Monday, disrupting early investigation operations.
Chapman confirmed storms remain a primary focus of the investigation.
Local public works crews removed a utility pole Tuesday to help teams enter and secure the crater caused by the plane's impact, according to Chapman. He said removing water from the crater allows investigators to recover plane components buried inside.
"We expect to find critical airplane components within the crater," Chapman said. "I feel confident that they are going to find what they need to put together what happened and why it happened."
Chapman also confirmed that there is no evidence that there is any connection to the crash having anything to do with the crash's proximity to Mar-a-Lago.
He also noted that Tuesday was the agency's final onsite briefing, announcing future updates will appear online and through official media relations channels.
Missing wreckage locations
What we don't know:
Federal authorities have not disclosed the exact locations where searchers recovered the elevator pieces. Chapman said the collected debris consists almost entirely of very small fragments, leaving many items unidentified until they are examined.
Officials have not established the final cause of the crash or confirmed what other evidence remains submerged in the crater.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from National Transportation Safety Board Member Tom Chapman, who detailed investigative findings during an on-site press briefing.