NTSB Releases New Details on Fatal Philadelphia Learjet Crash

Investigation into 2025 air ambulance accident focuses on pitch trim settings and nonfunctioning cockpit voice recorder.

Meg Godlewski

Friday, August 28, 2026 at 04:58 PM ET

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Meg Godlewski

NTSB investigators document the scene of the January 31, 2025, Learjet 55 crash in Philadelphia. [Credit: National Transportation Safety Board]

Key Takeaways:

The NTSB has released its docket on the 2025 fatal air ambulance crash in northeast Philadelphia, involving a Mexican-operated Med Jets (Jet Rescue Air Ambulance) aircraft, which killed six people on board and one on the ground shortly after takeoff.
The accident occurred less than a minute after takeoff into instrument meteorological conditions, with the aircraft reaching 1,650 feet before entering a left roll and dive, impacting the ground at full power and causing extensive damage.
The investigation is focusing on a potential pitch trim issue, as the aircraft's trim actuator was found set at 3.97 degrees, differing from the 5.5 degrees suggested for takeoff, and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was determined to have been inoperative at the time of the crash.

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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.