It also seems very disrespectful to me how the ATC audio has been published. I haven't listened because of how many people I've seen saying they found it haunting or regret listening. Could you imagine that circulating if the pilot was your family? If that was how you found out? I get that all the news outlets want to be the one to report and capture attention, but these are real people. My heart goes out to the families.
Most of the ATC exchange is being recorded and published by volunteers 24/7. It's not "published" in a sense it's never been secret - there is no encryption or any special encoding. You only need AM radio with a specific frequency band to listen to it.
If it had been more horizontal, there would likely have been casualties on the ground as well.
I suspect they release the audio, ironically, to calm airline passengers letting them know it was a unique situation.
More info:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/dramatic-footage-shows-pri...
Analysis of Miami NEXRAD radar shows the Learjet 60 (N722BD) entered a thunderstorm core near Wellington at about 12:48 PM ET, just before it crashed in Palm Beach County.
At 35,000 feet, radar echoes around the jet jumped to 34 dBZ, with a 52 dBZ core below it and storm tops near 47,000 feet. Tracking data shows the jet climbed about 450 feet inside the core, then went into a spiraling dive and crashed 76 seconds later.
I saw an interview with the son of a 9/11 victim last month. One of the things he said was: "anybody can see my father die on youtube". Really stuck with me.
Yes, honestly this was the first thing I thought when hearing about it.