Audio from an air site visitors management tower at Northeast Philadelphia Airport reveals the horrific moments earlier than a medical ambulance aircraft crashed in Philadelphia Friday night time whereas transporting a pediatric affected person.
The audio, obtained by Fox Information Digital, was recorded moments earlier than the aircraft took off. Operators will be heard talking as they desperately tried to make contact with the Learjet 55 earlier than it crashed.
“What’s happening down there?” one air site visitors controller will be heard saying.
“Now we have a misplaced plane. We’re not precisely certain what occurred. So, we’re making an attempt to determine it out,” replies one other air site visitors controller. “The sphere goes to be closed so no inbounds-outbounds.”
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First responders work the scene after a small aircraft crashed in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photograph/Matt Rourke)
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the corporate working the aircraft, stated the plane was a Learjet 55 whereas departing from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport round 6:30 p.m.
The corporate stated there have been 4 crew members and two passengers on the aircraft on the time – a pilot, copilot, doctor, paramedic, pediatric affected person and her mom. They have been all Mexican nationals.
Emergency personnel work on the website of a aircraft crash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., January 31, 2025. (REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski)
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there have been six individuals on the aircraft. The company stated the aircraft was heading to Springfield-Branson Nationwide Airport in Missouri.
Air Ambulance spokesperson Shai Gold informed Fox Information Digital the affected person was a Mexican nationwide who was within the U.S. for life-saving medical therapy. On the finish of therapy, she was launched to go residence.
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John Anderson, a retired pilot from Philadelphia, informed Fox Information Digital that, based mostly on the video of the crash and the way in which the plane struck the bottom, the probably trigger was a takeoff stall.
“The aircraft was out of the crew’s management. It was not managed flight into terrain (CFIT). Might have been a mechanical malfunction of the stabilizer, elevator, trim or perhaps a load shift rearward inside the cabin,” Anderson stated.
He additional speculated that if “it was a medical flight with a stretcher on board and the stretcher was not correctly secured, it might have rolled rearward.”
Police autos block the world surrounding the positioning of a aircraft crash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., January 31, 2025. (Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters)
“This may trigger the nostril to lift and stall the wing. In that case, the nostril will drop with the angle within the video,” he stated. “As a result of it was proper after takeoff and the preliminary climb, I might say it was probably aswing stall. There could possibly be quite a lot of elements that will trigger a stall. May have been a runaway trim, malfunctioning stabilizer.”
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Friday night time’s catastrophe comes simply barely 48 hours after a lethal collision between an American Airways flight and an Military helicopter close to Reagan Nationwide Airport that resulted within the deaths of 67 individuals.
Fox Information Digital’s Jenny DeHuff and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
