Nine people died on Sunday when a Learjet 60 business jet fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground in South Florida. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that everyone on board was killed.

The aircraft had taken off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed for the Bahamas. It crashed in a residential stretch of Palm Beach County, close to Military Trail and 10th Avenue North. Officials have not released a cause, and the identities of the victims have not been made public.

A plane that came down within feet of homes

The jet did not glide in or make a controlled approach. Video shot by people sitting in a car shows it dropping fast, almost straight down, before hitting the road. The impact came with a heavy blast.

The plane landed close enough to houses that it missed them by only a few feet. Cars driving along the road passed within inches of the wreckage. Anyone who was on that stretch at the wrong second would have been in its path.

The road became a fire pit. Flames spread across the pavement around the crash site, and the impact left a large crater in the street. Thick black smoke rolled over the area. Firefighters and other emergency crews reached the scene quickly, but the fire and debris kept the area dangerous for hours.

Power out, roads sealed

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office closed both directions of the road and told drivers to stay away from the area. Investigators and emergency teams worked the scene while traffic was diverted.

A woman who works nearby told reporters that power in the area went out for about two hours after the crash. It is not yet clear whether any nearby homes were damaged, and officials have not said whether anyone on the ground was hurt.

Who was flying the plane

Jim Reynolds, a spokesman for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the aircraft was a private plane. The tail number was N722BD. Reynolds described the crash as a major tragedy.

This is a major tragedy.

The airport’s statement and the early reports leave a lot unanswered. Nobody has named the people who were on board, and nobody has said why a private jet bound for the Bahamas came down over a South Florida road.

The federal response

Sean Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to help the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency leading the investigation into what caused the crash. That work will take time. Investigators will need to examine the wreckage, the aircraft’s records and the sequence of events before they can say what went wrong.

What comes next. The most urgent questions are the simplest ones. What caused a jet carrying nine people to fall out of the sky? Who were the passengers and crew? And did the crash cause harm beyond the nine lives already lost? Until investigators answer those questions, the people of Palm Beach County are left with the images of a plane that came down almost on top of their neighbors’ homes and a road that is still closed while crews clear what is left behind.