No voice recording from medical jet crash: NTSB releases preliminary report

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 5:52 p.m. ET Mar. 6, 2025


The National Transportation Safety Board released its investigation findings on the fatal plane crash in Philadelphia on Jan. 31 in a preliminary report Thursday.

A medical transport Learjet 55 crashed into a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood shortly after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, according to the report. The aircraft, registered in Mexico, was on an air ambulance flight to Springfield, Missouri.

The incident killed all six people onboard and one person on the ground while injuring 24 others and leaving wreckage amongst homes and buildings. Preliminary flight data showed that after departing from Runway 24 at 6:06 p.m., the jet climbed to 1,650 feet before entering a left turn and descending rapidly. The last recorded altitude was 1,275 feet at a speed of 242 knots.

There were no distress calls from the pilots before impact. Surveillance footage captured a large explosion at the crash site, and debris scattered over a 1,400-foot area, damaging multiple homes, businesses, and vehicles. Investigators retrieved the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder, which was buried under eight feet of debris. However, it's likely it had not been recording audio for years.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2025/03/06/ntsb-philly-crash-update/81809623007/

[turbinetree]

1. Someone and a lot of people are going to be in world of trouble over this............

you have to regular check that cockpit voice recorder and I mean check it during checks and to also remove and replace it during certain checks and to perform a check to make sure it works.........and any mechanic that did work on the plane here in the states had better be prepared to answer some questions...........if they falsified the log book and the check............and I realize that the pilot could have had spatial disorientation because of the night time flight and clouds but that cockpit recorder..............end of story..........

[BumRushDaShow]

2. If you look at the video of the plane descending

it was scary because it was literally moving so fast that it looked like a missile or meteor before crashing.

[turbinetree]

3. I think that the pilot lost spatial awareness............

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Since it was doing medical transport

I expect there were portable O2 tanks and other flammables on the plane (did finally see a still pic of the little girl and her mother where IIRC, she was using a nasal cannula) where something may have exploded and/or ignited something, including any flammable solvents and the O2 itself, and that is pretty much that. The plane literally looks like it was flaming on the way down.

[turbinetree]

5. Yeah the engines probably were flaming out from the g-forces and they were having O2 on board

for her and the portables for decompression even though the hydraulic system is suppose to be non flammable using Skydrol or a MIL 5606 the impact and the forces at play did not care.............it is really sad..........but someone is going to have to answer about the cockpit recorder being INOP, that really is a no-go item