NTSB: Part of Learjet's Pitch Control Found Miles From Deadly Palm Beach County Crash

Federal investigators have recovered a key piece of the Learjet 60 that crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday, killing all nine people aboard, finding it in pieces as far as nearly four miles from the crash site. National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman told reporters Tuesday that parts of the left tail elevator, which controls the plane's pitch, were found 1.3 to 3.8 miles from where the jet went down in Greenacres, near West Palm Beach. The jet took off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas around 10:37 a.m., bound for North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, and crashed just before 1 p.m. Chapman called the elevator a very important piece of evidence and said it likely separated before impact. Investigators have not determined whether losing the part brought the plane down or whether forces on the aircraft tore it off. The NTSB said it found no evidence of a connection to Mar-a-Lago, about eight miles away, where the Secret Service has restricted airspace.

The left-leaning New York Times leads with the discovery itself, noting the elevator was found in three pieces, one nearly four miles away, and stating that all nine aboard died; its excerpt offers no outside analysis. Right-leaning coverage goes further. Fox News headlines a former NTSB investigator, Greg Feith, who suggests the pilots' effort to level the jet may have torn the piece off, and it raises ice and severe turbulence as possible factors, while also giving the flight route and the Mar-a-Lago finding. The Daily Mail adds the pilot's name, Jeff Gregory, near-supersonic speed, a crater and fire, and the Secret Service no-fly zone. Both sides cite Chapman and the same distances. They differ in that Fox leans on expert speculation and the Daily Mail on dramatic detail, while the Times sticks to the finding. NewsNation, an alternative outlet, largely echoes the Times in stressing that the find may offer clues to the cause.