The Learjet aircraft’s left elevator was found in three pieces about 1.3 to 3.8 miles from the accident site, National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Thomas B. Chapman told a press conference on Tuesday. The crucial piece on the tail is used to move it up and down.
“It tells us that at least some components, some pieces of the aircraft, important pieces of the aircraft separated before the impact,” Mr Chapman said.
“What that means exactly in terms of what caused the aircraft to lose control, or whether the loss of this piece was a result of the forces on the aircraft, we don’t know yet. It’s going to take some more analysis.”
He said that the distance the elevator pieces were found away from the site meant they separated prior to the rather than on impact.
The storm experienced in Florida at the time of the crash remains the focus of the investigation.
Storms that swept through Florida on Monday hampered the investigation but on Tuesday, investigators collected and documented evidence.
The jet was traveling en route from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it plummeted around 32,000 feet per minute before hitting the ground nose-first and exploding into a massive fireball near a trailer park in Palm Springs.
The deceased have been named as multimillionaire tech executive Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp and their children Emma and Charlie. Their friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr and nanny Anita Maria Apellido Cetina were also killed in the tragedy.
The crew onboard the jet – who also tragically died – were pilot in command Jeff Gregory and co-pilot Nathalia Filgueiras.
Investigators will seek documentation relating to maintenance and crew performance of the $2 million aircraft as they try to get to the bottom of what went wrong Sunday.
“Despite the challenges, I feel confident they’re going to find what they need to help put together what happened here and why it happened,” Mr Chapman said.
