The CREW Had 45 Seconds. You Can Hear What They Did.

Three pieces of the Learjet 60's left elevator were found in the grass up to 3.8 miles short of the crater. A piece of the tail. Behind the wreck. Which means it left the airplane while the airplane was still flying. Nobody has turned that distance back into time. We did. Using the FAA altitude data, the public track reconstruction and the debris line, this video derives how long N722BD flew after the tail let go, and checks the number twice against evidence that was not used to produce it. The answer is 45 seconds, at about 21,000 feet. And there is one second in the data that still has two explanations, and both of them fit. The radio is played, not described. The recordings are FAA, public domain. 0:00 The 45 seconds nobody measured 1:39 The airplane and the crew 3:07 The weather they flew into 3:39 12:47 and the last normal call 5:35 The corner 6:44 What the FAA data says 7:23 The impact 8:05 Three pieces of one elevator 9:37 The arithmetic, step by step 10:51 12:48:48 12:28 Checked twice 14:10 The other explanation 15:30 Alaska 261 17:05 What the radio caught 18:12 Nine days in the crater 19:32 What the recorder decides 20:22 Early December Sources, in the order they are used: NTSB briefings of 2 and 3 November 2026 (via WFLX, AVweb, IBTimes, Fox) FAA altitude and track data via Wikipedia and FlightRadar24 ADS-B Exchange track reconstruction via the FlightRadar24 blog Aerospace Global News, 9 November 2026 AIN, 9 November 2026 CBS Miami, 9 and 10 November 2026 Aerocorner, 5 November 2026 AccuWeather weather analysis via Wikipedia Full list with licences in the video and in the pinned comment. 3D reconstruction, maps, diagrams and sound design: Airborne Studio. Dashcam footage: Aki Kuusisto via Storyful. Photographs: NTSB (public domain), Mike Illien (CC BY 4.0), Frank Jaeger (CC BY-SA 2.0), Bill Ingalls / NASA (public domain), Wikimedia Commons. Music: Monplaisir (CC0). This video is mainly for educational and entertainment purposes.