Nine people died after a Bahamas-bound Learjet crashed and subsequently burst into flames in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, officials reported.

The accident is the second deadliest in the United States this year, according to records from the National Transportation Safety Board, following a skydiving plane crash in June in Butler, Missouri, that left 12 dead.

Authorities have not identified the nine individuals on board the aircraft, nor have they specified how many were passengers and how many were crew members.

“It looked like a missile coming down,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said regarding the crash.

There are no reports of any ground fatalities, but the impact left a wide debris field, the governor indicated. Approximately 600 people require housing assistance due to the accident, according to a county official.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who confirmed the fatalities, called the crash a “horrible tragedy.”

The aircraft was a Learjet 60 flying to the Bahamas from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It is registered to a limited liability company in Delaware, FAA records show, and is listed online as available for charter flights.

The FAA and the NTSB will investigate the crash, the FAA reported. NTSB personnel will be on-site on Sunday and Monday.

The crash occurred near Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office stated in a release.

Minutes before the crash, the plane's pilot reported ice accumulation on the aircraft, an outside temperature of -47 °C, and moderate turbulence causing the plane to shake by up to 700 feet, according to air traffic control radio communications captured by LiveATC.net.

“We have a light layer of clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence,” the pilot radioed to the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center.

Moments later, however, after reporting that precipitation had begun and requesting to climb, the pilot declared an emergency.

“We are descending to 8,000 —mayday, mayday—, we are descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot said. “We are in an overspeed condition, descending 20,000 feet per minute… We are going to hit the ground.”

The aircraft descended 27,000 feet within one minute just before flight tracking data ceased, according to the ADS-B Exchange website.

Around 600 people need housing following the plane crash due to ground damage, said Joel Flores, Palm Beach County District 3 Commissioner and the first county official to arrive at the scene. Residents are being relocated to two county shelters while the site is investigated, he noted.

“I heard and felt the boom,” Andrew Mannino told CNN. “The power went out immediately and hasn't come back on yet.”

He mentioned smelling smoke and seeing “a big black cloud spread across the air.”

The crash site is located about 4 miles south of West Palm Beach Airport, which was renamed in honor of U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year. Trump was in West Palm Beach earlier Sunday but departed the airport aboard Air Force One a little over an hour before the crash.

Dashcam footage showing the crash will be important for investigators attempting to piece together what happened, said Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former Department of Transportation inspector general.

The airport is a good location to wait out bad weather, Schiavo told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday. “That is not a controlled descent. It is a descent where you are literally exceeding the plane's speed during descent. You are exceeding the rate of descent. So, at that point, it is clear that whatever happened, they had lost control of the aircraft.”

The steep descent could have torn pieces off the aircraft, and the black box might have been destroyed in the explosion, Schiavo added.

There were scattered thunderstorms in the area at the time of the crash, and the plane passed through a heavier storm cell a few minutes before beginning its descent. It remains unknown whether the storm contributed to the accident.

All northbound and southbound lanes of Military Trail will remain closed until further notice, officials reported, advising motorists to avoid the area and seek alternative routes.