The National Transportation Safety Board has released the docket on the 2025 fatal air ambulance crash in northeast Philadelphia, containing several hundred pages of new information, analysis, and photographs gathered as part of its ongoing investigation.
The accident flight was operated by Med Jets, doing business as Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, an international aeromedical long-distance transport provider based in Toluca near Mexico City.
Per the NTSB, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance was conducting operations in the U.S. under operations specifications issued by the FAA’s Dallas International Field Office under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 129.
“The operator was not authorized to operate any scheduled passenger operations, and the accident flight was a charter air ambulance flight,” the NTSB docket read.
Per the docket, the night of the accident on January 31 the jet took off at approximately 6:07 p.m. EDT from Runway 24 at Northeast Philadelphia Airport (KPNE) and was scheduled to fly to Springfield-Branson National Airport (KSGF) in Missouri to take on fuel before continuing to its final destination. The jet took off into IMCi with a ceiling reported as 400 feet.
Accident Details
Air traffic control (ATC) instructed the pilots to fly runway heading and climb to 2,000 feet. The controller subsequently gave the flight a right turn to 290 degrees. The crew acknowledged the instructions, but that was their last communication with the ATC.
The aircraft crashed less than a minute after takeoff, killing all six people on board and one on the ground when the aircraft went down in a densely populated urban neighborhood. Four people sustained serious injuries, 20 received minor injuries, and more than 366 properties were damaged when the aircraft, operating at full power, disintegrated on impact, spreading debris for a quarter of a mile.
Videos of the accident captured by dash and doorbell cameras show the jet coming down in a near-vertical attitude then exploding when it hit the ground, triggering fires that reached businesses, homes, and cars. The aircraft hit so hard that the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was recovered from the bottom of a crater eight feet deep.
The Investigation
Per the ADS-B information, the Learjet reached an altitude of approximately 1,650 feet then entered a dive. The aircraft continued down, still producing takeoff power and reaching 242 knots before impact.
One of the areas of focus for the NTSB is the possibility of a pitch issue during the climbout. According to the weight and balance provided and a Learjet 55 checklist found in the wreckage, which showed a takeoff trim table, the takeoff trim should have been set to about 5.5 degrees. The pitch trim actuator was found in the wreckage, and when measured it equated to a pitch trim indication of 3.97 degrees.
Based on ADS-B data and performance calculations the airframe manufacturer was able to estimate the control forces the crew would have felt on the yoke throughout the flight at differing pitch trim settings,” the docket read. “While the exact pitch trim settings for each ADS-B data point are unknown, the maximum force the crew would have needed to maintain level pitch (zero flight path angle) from the takeoff pitch trim setting to the found pitch trim setting was 53.5 [pounds]. Based on the final ADS-B data point and the pitch trim setting as found in the wreckage the airplane would have been trimmed slightly nose-up at that speed, weight, and center of gravity, needing about 12 [pounds] of pitch down force to maintain level pitch.”
Although jammed by impact, when the pitch trim actuator was disassembled, NTSB investigators found the screw threads were intact with no signs of overload or stripping. The actuator gear box showed no signs of overload.
ADS-B information also showed that as the aircraft turned right to the heading of 290 and entered the clouds it then began to slowly roll to the left. The left bank continued, reaching nearly 90 degrees as the jet’s nose began to drop, putting the aircraft into the dive as the rate of descent and airspeed picked up.
The aircraft was equipped with a CVR that iInvestigators retrieved from the wreckage and were able to clean up. However, they determined it was not working at the time of the accident and likely had not been operational for several years, therefore the accident flight was not recorded.
The Crew
The pilots held Mexican pilot certificates and were English proficient, according to the NTSB.
The captain held an ATP rating and had approximately 9,200 hours of flight time. The second in command held a commercial certificate and had approximately 2,600 hours.
The recency of the pilots’ instrument and night experience, and therefore currency, could not be determined. Investigators have also not been able to determine which pilot was flying at the time of the accident.
The NSTB’s final report on the accident is likely eight months to a year out. The agency’s full preliminary report on the crash can be found below.