We kick off the new week and new month with the following stories from this past weekend, including the tragic Learjet 60 crash in Greenacres, Florida...
Be safe out there!
Tom
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Private jet with 9 people on board crashes just miles from Mar-a-Lago
The plane took off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the FAA
By Emma Bussey Fox News
All nine people on board a private jet that crashed around
nine miles from President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach County, Florida are dead.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared the update Sunday afternoon, calling the incident a "horrific tragedy."
"The FAA is sending a team to the scene to support the @NTSB's investigation. Please join me in praying for the families and loved ones of those we lost —@FAANews & @USDOT are closely monitoring this crash and will share updates as we learn more," he added in a post on social media.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that the Learjet 60 crashed in a residential area near Cresthaven, Florida, around 12:50 p.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The jet departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, according to the agency.
No word yet on the identities of the nine people killed on board the jet.
Emergency crews shut down Military Trail between
Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, warning the public to avoid the area.
The fiery crash was captured on dashcam video. The jet can be seen rapidly descending from the sky before crashing nose-first into the ground and immediately exploding into a massive fireball.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later described the crash as "cataclysmic," telling reporters the plane crash in Palm Beach "looked like a missile going down."
"It left a big crater on the side of the road," he said.
"There was a lot of debris that was spewed as a result of this crash. As of now, we don't have any reports of anyone who was on the ground apart from the people in the plane who were killed or injured as a result of the debris," he said.
"But the debris was significant, and it went over a pretty significant distance. I've received a briefing from the county officials.
"We've also been in contact with the FAA. There will be some folks here. Obviously, they do an investigation in situations like these."
The impact displaced residents living near a mobile home
park.
District 3 Commissioner Joel Flores also said officials were working to ensure that about 600 people affected by the crash had a safe place to stay Sunday night.
"We got the Red Cross and stood by, making sure that we provided just initial services for them.
"So I think that's our worry right now, making sure that those folks have somewhere to go to stay safe with them," he said before explaining that the crash site was at the entrance to a mobile home park.
"Unfortunately, that's a crime scene. They're investigating that, so the people can't stay there. We are relocating them to two shelters in the county. They're on standby."
https://www.foxnews.com/us/private-jet-9-people-board-crashes-just-miles-from-mar-a-lago
PAL Airlines flight loses wheel in Wabush after landing
Flight 901 landed safely but the cause of the incident yet to be determined
Cameron Kilfoy · CBC News
In an incident captured on video, a piece of the landing gear on a PAL Airlines plane came off during landing on Friday in Wabush.
Lee Pitts, a CBC producer, was travelling on a multi-stop
plane connecting coastal parts of Labrador when he captured a wheel flying straight off seconds after touching the tarmac.
"The first thing I thought was I am glad I am taking the video because no one is going to believe this," Pitts said.
He says despite the loss, the landing of Flight 901 was still smooth and the airplane managed to taxi everyone off the plane. No injuries were reported.
But Pitts says he noticed something was wrong with the plane before it lost the wheel. When taking off from Goose Bay, he says, a kid yelled smoke was coming from the wheel but was quickly dismissed as splashing water due to the runway being wet.
However, the more Pitts kept looking, he thought it might actually be smoke.
"Whether it was steam or smoke, I don’t know, but it could have been smoke from a wheel bearing or brake pad, in hindsight," said Pitts.
As soon as the plane took off, he noticed the wheel wobbling and filmed it. He did the same thing when landing in Wabush.
Pitts said after landing, when everyone was off the plane, maintenance went to look at the wheel but passengers weren’t informed about what happened to the landing gear. He says what they were told was the airline was unaware if they would be able to continue flights.
However, a written statement provided by a PAL Airlines' spokesperson says that an additional aircraft was dispatched to allow customers to continue on their travel.
Joseph Galimberti also clarified Flight 901 endured a wheel bearing failure upon landing.
Galimberti said PAL has been in contact with Transport Canada and the incident will continue to be investigated to determine the cause.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/pal-flight-uses-wheel-9.7403236
Small plane rolls into grass after landing at Dallas Love Field, no injuries reported
By S.E. Jenkins
A small aircraft rolled into the grass after landing at Dallas Love Field Sunday afternoon, officials said.
According to the City of Dallas Department of Aviation, first responders were called to the scene and no injuries were reported.
Officials say the plane's landing gear remained intact. Runway 13L is currently closed as crews respond to the incident, while flights continue arriving and departing on Runway 13R.
The cause of the incident has not yet been released.
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/small-plane-rolls-grass-landing-dallas-love-field-no-injuries-nov-1-2026/
Man injured in Towanda Township plane crash
BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN
TOWANDA TOWNSHIP — A man was transported to a local hospital after the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed Sunday along Liberty Corners Road in Towanda Township, the manager of the Bradford County Airport said.
The man's injuries were non-life threatening, according to airport Manager Scott Hauser. 
The man, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, was approaching the airport to land when the accident occurred shortly before 2 p.m., Hauser said. The airplane came to rest upside down and sustained substantial damage.
"A local resident happened to be here (at the scene of the accident at the time the plane crashed)," said Hauser. "He is the one who called it in. I think he was just driving by."
The pilot was strapped in by his seatbelt, but a bystander was able to get him out of the plane before firefighters and Guthrie EMS arrived on scene, said Towanda Fire Chief Bill Sheets.
"There was a small fire in the engine, but people — with bottles of water, I guess — extinguished it before we got there," Sheets added.
Hauser said he did not know why the plane crashed but said that investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were expected to arrive Sunday afternoon to investigate the crash.
Hauser could not say at this time who was piloting the aircraft.
Based on the aircraft's registration number, which is printed on its tail, the plane is owned by Joseph Biancarelli of Leisure Drive, Towanda. It's not clear if Biancarelli was piloting the airplane at the time of the crash.
The plane, which is a Challenger II model, was made from a kit manufactured by Quad City Ultralight Aircraft Corp., said Hauser. He added that he did not know who built the plane from the kit.
Biancarelli was housing the plane at the airport, Hauser said.
Regarding the pilot's injuries, Sheets said, "I think he's going to be alright."
The pilot was transported to a local hospital by a Guthrie ambulance, Sheets said.
https://www.thedailyreview.com/news/local/man-injured-in-towanda-township-plane-crash/article_36371090-cf1d-4707-9a00-8943f8f34995.html
5 survive small plane crash landing on Kauai
By HNN Staff
WAIMEA (HawaiiNewsNow) - Emergency crews on Kauaʻi responded after a small plane crash-landed near Menehune Road in Waimea Friday morning.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Gippsland GA-8 crashed in a field at around 9 a.m.
Kaua‘i Fire Chief Michael Gibson said the fixed wing
aircraft landed in rocky terrain.
“Reports were that the pilot reported an engine popping sort of noise and tried to find a place to put the aircraft down,” he said.
Five people were on board at the time and got out on their own.
“From what I understand, it likely was a tour company with one pilot and four passengers,” Gibson said.
By the time crews arrived on scene, “they were all a great distance away from the aircraft, where it had went down into the terrain,” he said.
The crash site was on private property owned by the Robinson family, accessible only by rough dirt roads.
“It was on the Hanapepe side of the river, so there were no paved roads. So our ground crews accessed from dirt roads and private landowner lands,” Gibson said.
Gibson said one person with non-life-threatening injuries was airlifted to a landing zone and taken by ambulance to the hospital.
“We are just very relieved that nobody was tragically hurt,” he said. “As far as we know, the pilot reacted calmly and here we have it, five people are able to go on with their lives and the worst did not happen.”
Personnel from the Waimea and Hanapepe fire stations, Rescue 3, and Air 1, the on-duty Battalion Chief, American Medical Response, Līhu‘e Airport Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting, the Kaua‘i Police Department, and private landowners responded.
Gibson said the aircraft did not catch fire or leak fuel. Crews secured the area for federal investigators.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2026/10/31/5-survive-small-plane-crash-landing-kauai/
NTSB preliminary report on the Delta A350 that severed a CRJ-900's stabilizer in Atlanta spreads responsibility
The Endeavor CRJ-900 stopped short of the hold-short line and the A350 crew was watching the left wingtip; the NTSB has not yet determined the probable cause of the September 10, 2024 collision in Atlanta.
Pablo Diaz
On September 10, 2024, the right wingtip of a Delta Airbus A350-900 bound for Haneda struck and sliced off the vertical stabilizer of a CRJ-900 operated by Endeavor Air (Delta Connection) as both aircraft taxied at Atlanta airport.
According to the NTSB's preliminary report, the CRJ had stopped short of the hold-short line, leaving insufficient separation between the two aircraft. The A350 crew, meanwhile, was focused on the left wingtip. There were only minor injuries, while the CRJ-900 sustained substantial damage. 
Preliminary docket DCA24FA299 lays out the geometry of the collision. The impact occurred at 10:07:46, at the intersection of taxiways E and H. The A350-941 (registered N503DN) was operating flight DL295 to Haneda with 221 passengers and 15 crew members; the CRJ-900 (N302PQ) was operating DL5526 to Lafayette with 56 passengers. A CRJ flight attendant suffered minor injuries.
The probable cause has not yet been determined: the investigation remains open and all the NTSB has released so far is the preliminary report and the docket material, with no conclusions on responsibility and no new recommendations for this case. Reports of this kind usually take more than a year.
The key detail comes down to centimeters: the CRJ stopped with its nose gear about 56 feet (17 meters) from the hold-short line for runway 8R, while an A350's wing extends 106 feet (32.3 meters) from the fuselage centerline. That margin fell inside the wing sweep. The A350 was taxiing at 12 knots and the impact turned the CRJ about 9° clockwise.
The A350 captain stated that he was looking “ahead and to the left” to keep the left wing from touching an aircraft moving in the opposite direction and exiting taxiway V; the crew had also been dealing with a maintenance alert. Back in 2012 the NTSB had already counted twelve accidents since 1993 with the same pattern —the wingtip of a large aircraft against another aircraft or an object— and had recommended anti-collision cameras.
https://www.aviacionline.com/english/accidents-and-incidents/ntsb-preliminary-report-on-the-delta-a350-that-severed-a-crj-900-s-stabilizer-in-atlanta-spreads-responsibility_a6ae623799b2d9a633c66d066
The challenge of taxiing aircraft with 65-meter wingspans
The problem is not the aircraft but the airport's geometry. Atlanta's taxiways were laid out with 75-foot margins, designed for aircraft from another era: an A350-900 has a wingspan of 64.75 meters, almost three times the 24.9 meters of a CRJ-900. By aerodrome reference code, the A350-900 is a 4E aircraft and the CRJ-900 a 3C.
Add a visibility problem: from the flight deck of a widebody the wingtips cannot be seen without opening the window and leaning out, which is impractical while taxiing. Hence the insistence on anti-collision aids and on splitting tasks between the two pilots: one taxis while the other monitors the position on the airport diagram and repeats every “hold short” instruction, according to circular AC 120-74B, which also bans head-down tasks unless on a straight segment or stopped. Wing walkers, by contrast, are used for towing and pushback, not for taxiing under the aircraft's own power.
Density makes everything worse: Atlanta recorded 807,625 aircraft movements in 2025, about 2,200 a day, and was the world's busiest airport with 106.3 million passengers. Delta operates nearly a thousand daily flights from that hub, with a permanent mix of long-haul widebodies and regional aircraft on the same taxiways.
Two wing collisions in eleven days
The case was not isolated. Ten days earlier, on August 31, 2024 and at the same airport, the winglet of a Delta A330-300 struck the horizontal stabilizer of a Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 during a 90° turn; the final report, issued in September 2025, attributed the probable cause to an incorrect assessment of separation.
The most remembered precedent is JFK, on April 11, 2011, when the wing of an Air France A380 —with 485 passengers on board— cut through the tail of a Comair CRJ-700. The NTSB attributed the probable cause to the A380 crew's inability to assess its wing sweep, with a contributing factor: the CRJ did not advise the tower that its tail was protruding beyond the hold-short line.
As for the fleets involved, Delta had 1,330 aircraft as of September 30, 2026 —1,005 mainline and 325 regional—, including 42 A350-900s. Endeavor Air, a wholly owned Delta subsidiary and the world's largest CRJ-900 operator, had 144 aircraft at the close of 2025: 125 CRJ-900s and 19 CRJ-700s.
The agency's current recommendations call for verbalizing the runway about to be crossed, adding visual and aural traffic alerts on runways and taxiways, and extending surface surveillance to every airport with scheduled commercial operations. None of those measures, on its own, prevents an aircraft stopped short of the hold-short line from ending up inside another aircraft's wing sweep.
https://www.aviacionline.com/english/accidents-and-incidents/ntsb-preliminary-report-on-the-delta-a350-that-severed-a-crj-900-s-stabilizer-in-atlanta-spreads-responsibility_a6ae623799b2d9a633c66d066
Today in History
53 Years ago today: On 2 November 1973 A La Urraca Handley Page Herald crashed while on approach to Cúcuta Airport, Colombia , killing 6 occupants; 10 survived the accident.
| Date: | Friday 2 November 1973 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Handley Page HPR-7 Herald 101 |
| Owner/operator: | Lineas Aéreas La Urraca |
| Registration: | HK-718 |
| MSN: | 150 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1961 |
| Engine model: | Rolls-Royce Dart (series unknown) |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 16 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Villavicencio-La Vanguardia Airport (VVC) - Colombia |
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Arauca-Santiago Pérez Airport (AUC/SKUC) |
| Destination airport: | Cúcuta-Camilo Daza Airport (CUC/SKCC) |
| Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:
A La Urraca Handley Page Herald crashed while on approach to Cúcuta Airport, Colombia , killing 6 occupants; 10 survived the accident.
When landing at Arauca (AUC) after a flight from Paz de Ariporo (PZA) and Tame (TME) a loss of hydraulic fluid was noted on the left main gear hydraulic system. A split hose was changed before the aircraft left for a flight to Cúcuta. Some 5 minutes after takeoff a burning smell and smoke were noticed in the cockpit. It appeared then that the undercarriage was still extended, though the undercarriage indicators in the cockpit didn't show this.
The crew elected to divert to Villavicencio and made two low runs over the field to obtain instructions from the chief of maintenance and the airline's instructor.
While on final approach to runway 22 the pilot was told by the instructor on the ground to feather the no. 1 engine as a precautionary measure. After passing the threshold at low altitude, power was reapplied and the aircraft turned slowly to the left, lost altitude and crashed in flames.
