Video taking off 87x its usual first day

Florida crash witness: "I didn't want to believe it was a plane."

CBS Evening News pairs a resident's account with emergency radio calls from the Learjet that crashed near West Palm Beach.

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CBS Evening News Story of November 3, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 671,179 views a day, 87 times a normal first day on this channel (7,730).

Florida jet crash that killed 9 sounded like bomb going off, witness says

Phillip Cruz initially thought he had heard a missile, he tells CBS News reporter Cristian Benavides. His account captures the confusion on the ground when a private Learjet crashed beside a road near West Palm Beach.

The aircraft was traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas. All nine people aboard died. In the CBS Weekend News segment, anchor Jericka Duncan introduces a report combining dashcam footage, witness interviews and the crew's communications with air traffic control.

Cruz describes struggling to understand what had happened: "I didn't want to believe it was a plane." Benavides reports that witnesses compared the sound of the impact to a bomb going off. Nearby residents were evacuated as fires burned around the crash site.

The short report drew roughly 670,000 views in its first day, far beyond the channel's usual audience for this format.

The radio audio documents the emergency unfolding: the crew reports icing and moderate turbulence, followed by a rapid descent and repeated mayday calls. Benavides closes with emergency vehicles lining the road and investigators expected at the scene.

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