
'Very important' evidence found miles from Learjet crash site in Florida, investigator says
By Katherine Langford
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Investigators found part of the tail of the jet that crashed in South Florida more than a mile from the crater caused when the aircraft made impact.National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman said during a news conference Tuesday that the discovery of tail parts confirms the plane was breaking apart before it hit the ground.Chapman said the tail's elevator was broken into three parts, and without that intact, pilot would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its nose dive.“The function of the elevator is to control the pitch up and down," he said. "At those speeds I don’t know that it would’ve been effective even if it had still been attached to the aircraft, but knowing that it was lost is a very important piece of evidence in terms of pointing us towards other things to investigate.”Chapman acknowledged Monday that parts of the jet likely started to break off before it struck the ground. The co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, told