Three families displaced by a private jet crash near Greenacres, Florida, have retained legal representation as they weigh their options and struggle to return home, USA Today reported.
The private Learjet flew from Texas to the Bahamas before it plummeted from the sky and slammed into the ground along Military Trail on November 1. The impact killed all nine passengers on board. While no fatalities occurred on the ground, the crash upended nearby residents and businesses, Mariano Garcia, an attorney representing the three families, said on November 13.
“It was very devastating what happened to the occupants of the aircraft, but this has had ripple effects on this community,” Garcia, whose West Palm Beach law firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley plans to investigate the crash, told USA Today. “The effects of this are going to linger.”
The crash scattered wreckage and debris into nearby RV trailers and homes. The incident forced the evacuation of about 600 residents and the closure of more than 80 businesses.
Garcia said the three families lived in homes closest to the impact site inside the Green Acres Mobile Estates community, near the intersection of Military Trail and Cresthaven Boulevard.
County officials deemed the home of a family of eight unsafe to inhabit.
Residences in the area are riddled with holes from debris and pieces of wreckage that penetrated walls and roofs. Chunks of asphalt thrown from the roadway also landed throughout the neighborhood.
Seven members of the family of eight were home when the aircraft crashed. The parents stood on the front porch with their 1-year-old child when they saw the explosion and felt its force, while the grandparents were inside the home. Their 20-year-old daughter was driving back to the neighborhood when she saw the aircraft erupt into a fireball.
“These folks are traumatized by hearing the explosion, feeling the shock wave and then seeing the carnage of body parts and airplane parts all over this trailer park,” Garcia said. “And really not knowing what happened.”
Catholic Charities temporarily placed the family in an Airbnb. However, they must leave the temporary lodging on November 16, and if they cannot find housing large enough for all eight members, they will have to split up.
The families had not filed a lawsuit as of November 13 and are still considering their legal options, Garcia said. Searcy Denney plans to investigate the crash while waiting for the National Transportation Safety Board to complete its inquiry.
Attorneys and the families are particularly interested in what investigators may learn from the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder.
Investigators recovered the recorder from the scene, and experts indicate its contents could reveal what the pilots heard and did as the emergency unfolded.
“No family should have to lose access to their home in the aftermath of an aviation disaster,” Garcia wrote in a November 13 statement reported by USA Today.
“Our clients deserve answers about the circumstances that led to this devastating crash. We intend to conduct a thorough investigation and pursue accountability on their behalf.”
Related reading