Washington (CNN) — The National Transportation Safety Board is still trying to figure out what caused a twin-engine medevac jet to crash in Philadelphia last year and kill eight people.
About one minute after takeoff, the Learjet 55 turned to the left and started a violent dive, descending at nearly 10,000 feet per minute while accelerating to more than 275 MPH, according to information collected by investigators.
The new findings are part of more than 1,500 pages of factual information the NTSB published Tuesday on the January 31, 2025, crash.
The medevac jet was taking an 11-year-old patient, who had just completed medical treatment, and her mother home to Mexico when it went down into the neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, triggering a massive fireball. All six people on the plane and two on the ground were killed. At least 19 people were injured.
The new records provide additional detail about the airplane’s final seconds but do not explain what caused the sudden loss of control. The NTSB has not determined what caused the accident, which comes only at the conclusion of the investigation.
The Philadelphia crash came just two days after a midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people. The two crashes, among others that followed in the months after, heightened attention to aviation safety.
Investigators search for answers
The Med Jets plane, operated as Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, was registered in Mexico and flown by the company’s 46-year-old chief pilot, according to the NTSB. Both pilots had completed training and were experienced with thousands of hours of flying time.
A security camera captured the sound of the plane taking off, and investigators were able to determine that both engines were operating at full power at the time of the accident.
But moments later, another camera at a drive-through caught the lights of the plane streaking through the night sky toward the ground at a sharp angle.
The Learjet’s cockpit voice recorder had not worked for several years investigators reported, but Mexican authorities said due to the age of the plane it was not required to have one.
The company operating the plane had several past crashes, including two in Mexico in 2019 and 2023 and a fatal accident in Fort Lauderdale in 2013.
Four of the company’s planes were allowed to fly in the United States under supervisor of an FAA inspector, the documents show. In an NTSB interview, the inspector said they did not know how many accidents the company had been involved in and what inspections were conducted. Med Jets was also required to notify the FAA when it was flying in the US, but that had not happened on the accident flight, the inspector said.
Investigators also examined whether the Learjet’s pitch trim system could help explain the sudden dive.
Pieces of the system were found in the wreckage and appeared to be set at 3.97 degrees, when they should have been set to 5.5, the NTSB said. Pitch trim adjusts the up and down motion of the airplane’s nose so the pilot does not have to continuously hold pressure on the controls as speed changes.
The incorrect settings could have required more force to fly the plane, but the NTSB has not concluded if they contributed to the pilots’ apparent loss of control.
The plane’s impact
The flight took off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport after having just been filled with 600 gallons of fuel and reached an altitude of about 1,500 feet before it came crashing down into a nearby neighborhood, the NTSB documents show.
The tail clipped a shopping center sign, and the plane slammed into a road, creating a crater about 8 feet deep, according to investigators. Multiple cars and homes burned in the more than a quarter of a mile long and 800-foot-wide debris field.
The core of the right engine was found 665 feet from the impact crater in a second-floor bedroom. An aircraft tire was also found in a bedroom, and some of the landing gear was wedged under a car, the documents show.
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