All nine people have died who were aboard a business jet that crashed in a Florida neighborhood on Sunday, Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, said. The aircraft erupted in a massive fireball that appeared to just miss homes before crashing near a busy roadway.

Duffy posted on X on Sunday that the Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach county at 12.50pm and called it a “horrific tragedy”. The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the cause, he said.

The aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom international airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities did not immediately say what caused the jet to go down or who was on it.

Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for the airport, said it was a private aircraft.…