Thunderstorms were firing on Sunday near where a Lear jet went down

• Severe thunderstorms over South Florida on Sunday may have contributed to a fatal Learjet crash near Greenacres.
• Pilots typically avoid thunderstorms, but icing and severe turbulence remain significant dangers at high altitudes.
• The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the official cause of the crash.

Thunderstorms detonated widespread over South Florida on Sunday as warm air rushed toward heaven with a violence that snarled air travel, forced flight-plan changes and may have contributed to the fatal plungeof a Learjet 60 near Greenacres.

The soggy tempests that dogged the region mushroomed from a stalled frontal boundary parked over the area pushing freezing cloud tops to tower tens of thousands of feet high — a situation that can cause icing trouble with equipment but also severe turbulence.

At the time the plane with nine passengers crashed just before 1 p.m., thunderstorm cells were sparking all around.

Elliot Johnson, a more than 40-year veteran pilot who flies a Falcon 900 business jet out of South Florida, said pilots generally can avoid thunderstorms either by going around them or changing elevation to fly above them.

In addition to advances in radar and satellite technology, pilots also constantly communicate what they are experiencing so other flights can avoid rough air.

“Thunderstorms are bad, period,” he said. “Hopefully, you can see them and to the extent you can, you want to stay in clear air.”

Johnson said a colleague was flying over a thunderstorm once when his plane was hit by lightning from below. The plane lost pressurization and the pilot struggled to get it lowered to 10,000 feet and land safely.

“But they all thought they were going down,” Johnson said.

People speculated on social media Sunday that icing on the tail of the plane may have contributed to a tailplane stall that can cause the airplane to pitch down at a 90-degree angle uncontrollably.

If a plane struggling with icing issues is flying through severe turbulence, it’s even possible for control systems to break off the fuselage, especially if the pilot is fighting to right the plane, putting more severe stress on it.

"When you see that video, it's a jarring thing," said Gov. Ron DeSantis during a media briefing about images showing the plane hitting the ground nose first. "It was like a missile coming down. To see how it descended you can make the inference that something happened in the air that was a big problem."

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of Sunday’s crash.

“It’s 100% possible to get icing in Florida,” said Johnson, who was not speaking directly about Sunday’s incident.

Sunday’s long-lived thunderstorms were exacerbated by warm humid easterly breezes at the surface jostling with westerly winds higher in the atmosphere.

“The winds are blowing at different directions and that’s allowing some of the heavier storms to sit or train over an area for longer periods,” said Miami-based National Weather Service Meteorologist in  Charge Robert Molleda. “Some areas are seeing 2 to 4 inches of rain in a couple hours time.”

Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers weather, the environment and critters as the Embracing Florida reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to [email protected]. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.