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:

A 2025 fatal air ambulance crash in northeast Philadelphia killed all six people on board and one on the ground, causing widespread damage to over 366 properties.
The flight was operated by Med Jets, doing business as Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, a Mexican company conducting charter operations in the U.S. under Part 129, and took off into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).
NTSB's preliminary investigation indicates the aircraft rolled left and entered a steep dive shortly after takeoff, with a discrepancy found between the measured pitch trim setting and the recommended setting.
The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was recovered but determined to have been inoperable at the time of the accident and likely for several years prior.

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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.