Why: Philadelphia Medevac Learjet Crash [w/ ATC Audio]

a devastating accident just occurred in

Philadelphia where a flight was destined

to pick up a young girl under 18 years

old who just received life-saving

treatment in Philadelphia unfortunately

as her plane went to take off to take

her back to her home in Tijana Mexico

the plane crashed in this video and just

a few hours after the accident we're

going to try to piece together how it's

possible that a Learjet 55 was able to

crash out of the sky almost like a

missile and kill everyone on board and

potentially even some on the ground this

is a

devastating occurrence it is terrible to

see this event happen and I feel so

terrible for everybody whose lost loved

ones involved I want to say I'm meet

Kevin I'm a pilot while I'm a newer

pilot I want to be clear my goal every

single day is to learn from any incident

that occurs and share my experiences in

my pilot Journey you could see more on

my Channel about that but for now we've

got to look at ATC Communications and

what trajectory this plane was supposed

to be on and what may have actually

happened because what the plane was told

to do is not what the plane did or

should I say the pilots so let's try to

piece together what happened here what

I'd like to do first is start with the

air traffic control instructions and

then I'm going to compare those

instructions to what actually happened

take a look here this is the air traffic

control uh communication recording now

you only it sounds like you only get the

tower frequency here so you're not

actually going to hear the pilots until

they switch to the tower frequency I'll

explain that in a moment but let's start

with what the initial instructions were

and then look at what they actually

did medac Med service 056 on departure

turn right hitting 2 ner0 Runway 24 for

takeoff win 250 1

0 first things first the wins are 250 at

10 knots this means they have almost a

perfect headwind and for a Learjet 10

knots of winds at a 10° offset is

essentially a

nonissue there was no mention of gusting

winds so I don't think winds were an

issue here is a rainy night this is

night time with low cloud coverage and I

think that may end up making a factor

here or playing a factor here now keep

in mind they were just cleared for

takeoff from Runway 24 and they were

instructed on takeoff uh after they've

reached the end of the runway typically

this is when the FAA expects you to

initiate your term they were asked to

turn right heading 2 ner Z is that what

the plane did well you're going to see

first this is forf flight and it'll show

you an overview of Runway 24 here is

Runway 24 at the Northeast Philadelphia

Airport if we draw an extending ruler

from the center line of the runway you

could see it lines up perfectly with

240° now why does that matter because if

I extend straight down the runway

heading and I hold that 240 look at

where this ruler intersects the freeway

it intersects right about where these

trees are at a straight heading notice

this right here in this area where the

bend is of the freeway and approximately

where those trees sit this will be very

important so keep this in mind but first

I want you to see what a 29 or0 heading

actually looks like 29 or0 off of

takeoff would have looked something like

this this heading is set for 290 so if

you took off we'll go ahead and use a

different color here just so we could

see this potentially a little bit more

clearly we'll go with a green thicker

line here if you made it to the end of

the runway you would have been expected

to start your turn at the end of the

runway in a heading of 2 N or Z but

that's not what happened here remember

if they ended up going straight you

would expect that the plane would

intersect right about here where this

green circle is right let's go ahead and

take a look at the publicly available

tracking data for tail number x-ray

alpha- uniform charlie India keep in

mind when a tail number starts with

November it's usually a Us registration

and when it starts with x-ray Alpha it's

generally a Mexican registration which

this indeed was in fact all the

passengers on board of this sponsored

flight with a medical Transport company

were sponsored now in other words the

life-saving treatment was sponsored so

this was sort of like a make a wish or a

charity right the FAA has also confirmed

that six people were on board a mother

the daughter who received the treatment

two uh pilots and two crew members it's

expected that all of them lost their

lives as this crash impacted near a mall

in Philadelphia but let's take a look at

that publicly available flight data so

what do we have on flight data here well

you can see here is the runway where my

mouse is and when we extend from this

Runway what do you notice the plane is

right there where the trees are at the

bend in the highway and it's actually on

a track of

240° now this doesn't tell us the

direction of the nose at the time but it

does tell us that the plane itself was

moving at a direction of about 240°

which is roughly Runway heading it means

they have not started started their

right turn yet and they're already at

1,300 ft now at this point you could see

that the aircraft has climbed about

1,200 ft we know this because the

airport elevation here on foreflight is

listed at

120 ft so after climbing about 12200 ft

the plane is still not even to about 5°

started its turn now that's odd and and

given that in the air traffic controller

comms we hear an air traffic controller

say turn right hitting 29 or Z and then

a firm turn right hitting 29er Z and

it's the controller saying it twice it

makes me wonder are the pilots

distracted in the cockpit now it doesn't

sound like there's a lot of stress when

we go through more of the data so let's

go ahead and play the rest of what we

have here which is an edited together

version of what the tower frequency

hears I'll play it again from the

beginning and interrupt just to say when

I think there are pieces cut out medac

Med service 056 on departure turn right

hitting 2 ner0 Runway 24 for takeoff wi

250 1 0 ini service 056 affirmative on

departure turn right hitting 290 Runway

24 clear for takeoff now you might

wonder why didn't you hear the pilots

there well in my opinion you didn't hear

the pilots because they were likely

transmitting on the ground frequency and

I believe that this recording is only of

the tower frequency not also of ground

so you could hear Tower talking to both

sides but you can't hear what they're

saying on ground so we don't get their

voices until they're actually airborne

and they're asked to switch from the

tower frequency to the departure

frequency which we'll hear in just a

moment medac Med service 056 contact

departure

23.8

3.8 5 thank you good

day medac mid service

056 Northeast Tower contact Philly

23.8

23.8 they're saying this because they're

asking that the pilots transfer over to

the contact the other frequency now

initially when we heard the pilot it

didn't sound like there was any

particular cockpit distress in my

opinion the pilots may not have yet been

distressed at the time that they've

switched frequencies in fact I think

this happened very suddenly to them well

what's about to happen and I'll explain

what my impression is but we'll keep

listening medac mid service Northeast

Tower medac Med service 056 Northeast

Tower you on frequency medac M Ang here

056 Northeast Tower how do you hear this

transmission medac Med service 056

Northeast

Tower at this point it's likely that

they've already switched frequencies

they're on with the other comms they're

not on with Tower anymore and

unfortunately the accident takes place

now what else can we glean from the

publicly available data well when we

look at the rest of the public data we

could see that the plane never enters

Its Right Turn ever all we could see is

that at 11:06 UTC we have a plane that

is still heading Runway Direction 12200

ft after Runway elevation they haven't

even begun their right turn now the

Metar we have at this moment a couple

hours afterwards indicates broken clouds

at 700 ft it's possible that right as

they entered this 1300 ft height they

started to get disoriented in the clouds

and this can happen even to experienced

instrument rated Pilots especially if

they're not familiar with the airport

they're not not familiar with the area

or the weather and clearly at this point

they've forgotten already to turn right

they might be overwhelmed with what's

going on especially if a passenger is

potentially having issues in the back or

somebody is talking to them and they

don't actually have a sterile cockpit

unfortunately we're unlikely to know

what happened on the inside because

there's unlikely to be a voice data

recorder or cockpit recorder on this

small of a jet however I can tell you

that when you you enter clouds even as

an instrument rated pilot it can be a

moment of adjustment or call for a

moment of AD adjustment I was just

flying a multi-engine plane yesterday

and the feeling of transitioning from I

can see the Horizon to wow I'm looking

at a wall of clouds and the clouds are

the same color as the water under me

that's flying at around 400 p.m. and we

had such an overcast day that everything

looked like I was looking into a

seamless on a studio set as in there was

no Horizon anymore it can take a moment

to adjust and look okay let's get into

instrument mode look down how's my

altitude how is my air speed and how is

my headache we already know that they've

lost sight of their heading because they

never initiated their turn the only

thing that's next to make a big oopsy

when you start getting into the clouds

is you accidentally pitch the nose up

too high especially if you're loaded to

the rear now when people hear Jets we

regularly think that jets are extremely

powerful but as a jet owner myself

somebody who owns uh a slightly smaller

than the uh Learjet 55 but a Phenom

300E I can tell you the loading weight

of these Jets isn't as much as you think

especially if you have F full fuel

because you're trying to get from

Philadelphia all the way to Tijana

Mexico and and you're going to be

against the jet stream you're probably

trying to make it without stops so

you've probably filled this to the brim

if you filled this plane to the brim

you're going to have a useful load of

about 1,800 to 2200 lb that's not a lot

if you have six people on board let's

put an average weight for each person

yes the person under 18 was presumably

under 200 lb but we don't know the

weight of the pilots so let's use an

average weight per person of 200 lb now

we already have 12200 lb gone but now we

have to add medical equipment possible

IV equipment we saw oxygen tanks in the

debris field there is a lot more weight

on this plane than is probably typical

in addition to any kind of baggage that

the mother and daughter potentially

brought or souvenirs or gifts that they

got for for succeeding in their

treatment I hate to say it but I think

there's a high likelihood that as the

Pilots entered the clouds they

unfortunately had a plane that was fully

loaded afed heavy and they before they

could even realize it had pitched the

plane up slightly too high and the plane

entered a right spin

stall that's my opinion as somebody

who's still advancing in their flight

training and I'm a newer pilot so I want

to be clear about that but looking at

this data this is ex exactly what we're

trained for to try to avoid the best

stall is no stall and let's look at this

data here together to see if this would

make logical sense we're at, 1300 ft at

a ground speed of 187 knots now if we

expect an engine failure we would expect

that this ground speed would rapidly

decline before our vertical speed

declines if our vertical speed rapidly

declines it potentially indicates a

stall now in case you've never been in a

stall when you get your private pilot

license you actually in order to pass

you have to go on a check ride with a

designated pilot examiner uh they're

authorized by the FAA to do this I you

know I had my check ride not that long

ago and uh I had to show her a full

stall break and Recovery in you know

single engine prop plane and in a single

engine prop plane essentially you get

into a this would be like a power on

stall we would call it where you're in a

takeoff configuration and in order to

show them a power on stall you have to

pitch the nose back uh you know pull it

towards you essentially so you're

pulling on the elevator you're pitching

up pitching up pitching up uh Until It

Breaks and in a single engine prop you

can recover from this so you'll actually

give the examiner a full brake on a

single engine plane and what that feels

like is you'll slowly up up up up stick

Shaker activates if you have one stall

stall warning warning warning when it

breaks it's not a slow break a break

like a stall would be something

like it's fast and it is really

difficult to recover from a stall if

your rear word

loaded and that is my assumption of what

happened here

baggage the staff and the patient the

mother anyway in a single engine plane

you can recover from this in a

multi-engine plane going through

multi-engine training and Jet training

it's almost impossible to recover from

these situations in fact when we train

them we never go into actual stalls in a

multi-engine situation because they're

so dangerous and deadly they're almost

unrecoverable and I think that's why in

footage when we see the plane come down

like a missile it's frankly because they

stalled and they was nothing to get them

to recover now let's look at the data to

see if the data corroborates this

thesis again we've got, 1300 ft of

elevation 187 knots of ground speed

vertical speed of 3,000 which is

actually acceptable for a Lear jet it

it's it's fast it's acceptable for a

Learjet though the very next ping that

we have uh let's go ahead and reset the

zoom there there we go the very next

data point that we have is actually a

vertical speed that has declined to 100

or 1472 ft per minute now this is really

interesting because you're going 187

knots and you did speed up by about 11

knots so you sped up 11 knots and your

vertical speed decelerated that would

actually indicate an initial sort of

pointing the nose down a little bit

unless this is the early portion of the

stall and unfortunately that's what I

think happened here this is the moment

of the stall we gain speed because all

of a sudden we're going from rising or

climbing at 3,000 ft per minute in the

very next snapshot which frankly is a

distance of less than 5 Seconds right

here 38 on the uh second uh counter here

to 35 so we're talking 7 seconds I

should say in 7 Seconds we go from

climbing at 3,000 ft to climbing half of

the rate and then just 2 seconds later

when we get the H 3 seconds later when

we get the next data point we go from

1,400 ft per minute to 400 ft per minute

and our ground speed is picking up and

the very next data point which is just 2

seconds later we're at roughly uh the

same feet per minute here picked up a

little bit on ground speed uh next data

point is is 4 seconds later same spot

and within the

next 5 Seconds thereafter we go from

climbing at 448 ft to now falling at

2,800 ft per minute so in other words in

the span of 20 seconds we went from

climbing 3,000 ft a minute which is

which is steep climb especially if

you're fully loaded to Falling 2,000 ft

per minute that that is not to me the

sign of an engine failure engines fail

at a rate of one every 240,000 flight

hours for a turbine it's very rare and

multi-engine Pilots are trained to

overcome an engine failure even on

takeoff it hurts your leg cuz it takes a

lot of Rudder work but this is a

solvable issue I think these Pilots were

so unfamiliar they got themselves into

the clouds they got confused Poss

possibly looked at each other for a

moment said hey what was the heading we

were supposed to fly again as they're in

the clouds they lost sight of the

Horizon they didn't look at their

instruments for the attitude or their

pitch angle and unfortunately they

exceeded the critical angle of attack

and left the plane no choice but to

stall now I want to be clear I don't

know if this is with certainty what

happened and it might be a very long

long time for any of us to get all of

the answers or all of the details of

what actually happened on screen you

could see some of the details or some of

the debris that we see on the floor here

this is a devastating situation to see a

medical plane with a pediatric patient

crash and some of the scenes are frankly

heartbreaking my purpose in going

through some of the data we have here is

really just to show you is [ __ ]

okay well I wasn't expecting the audio

to turn on that one but anyway it's

really to show you how quickly Aviation

can go from everything is fine to

everything is poopy doopy now I

personally really respect pilot debrief

and I look forward to his debrief on

what happened in the situation mostly

because I believe that he's the reason I

got into Aviation while I was looking

and watching his videos I got inspired

ired to see can I do what's necessary to

fly safely can I challenge myself and

become a safe pilot and I study Aviation

on almost a daily basis and seeing cases

like this

absolutely breaks my heart but I think

there's a learning experience in every

single accident that happens including

the helicopter crash that we talked

about the Blackhawk that crashed into

the American Airlines flight and my

experiences with trainers who are quite

frankly often still learning themselves

you can see my video on that there are

some recommendations I have for that as

well uh to looking at this and seeing in

bad weather going into the clouds what

happens when you're potentially

overloaded distracted not able to hold

the heading that you're instructed to do

or instructed to fly and before you know

it you exceed the critical angle of

attack for this plane now there are

other people who have indicated that

potentially this plane was on a go

around I've seen some uh posts of

individuals suggesting the plane had

actually potentially landed and then it

was on a go around that doesn't

corroborate or line up with the ATC data

and it doesn't line up with the adsb

data either mostly because we could see

here that the flight or the plane came

from Miami and landed in Philadelphia at

around 12:30 uh p.m. on a schedule uh a

slot but it actually ended up arriving

at 309 uh and then we have what looks

like a flight plan that is filed for a

5:00 p.m. departure but then we have the

actual flight which occurs right here

which is different from what's filed in

the flight plan it is the flight when

they take off uh and as we could see in

the data here this is not a continuation

or a goar around which would typically

be indicated by adsp data indicating

what looks like a fly over the airport

and a continuation

it's possible it doesn't seem like

that's what's happening here in the data

given the time difference uh between

this prior flight uh and uh what we see

uh in this data see this is 5:00 p.m.

UTC when they landed in Philadelphia and

they were going to Philadelphia to pick

up a pediatric patient so while there

are some images circling around over oh

could this have been a go around I think

that's highly unlikely for example I see

this uh image or tweet right here oh was

this a go around uh I don't think so uh

in fact to me this is just a normal

takeoff pattern and this is an

interesting 3D visualization of the

direction of their flight as you can see

there's really at no point a right turn

here uh there's only a left turn stall

uh which is again extremely devastating

uh and it's it's just terrible uh to see

uh again the FAA has verified that there

were six people on

board see some more footage here of the

uh early scene of what this looked like

there are houses uh on fire there are uh

officers here responding clearly on the

phone actually one of those individuals

looks like a police explorer I used to

be a police explorer uh and um clearly a

devastating situation giv given that

this plane was uh expectedly full of

fuel to make the flight to uh Tijana uh

keep in mind also that

uh smaller Jets like for example a Sirus

single engine jet if you fill that jet

up with fuel all the way you could

barely put two people on it with full

Fuel and get anywhere the uh loading

capacity of smaller Jets isn't that

great so you have to be really really

careful especially when you're in the

elements and if you're an unfamiliar

terrain it's really scary and I highly

encourage that when Pilots are flying in

new areas they don't ever make flights

in new areas in situations where they

have passengers where they're likely to

be stressed or the very least pre-fly it

uh you know flight simulate uh the

flight first do whatever you can do to

become familiar with the area and brief

and brief and brief your takeoff

instructions one thing that I like to do

and this is what I'll leave it off at is

when I take off when I'm at the hold

Short Line I always triple check that I

have my heading set on my autopilot and

when I have my heading and my flight

level set I can't exceed the critical

angle of attack because I've set I've

set a climb rate that is well below the

critical angle of attack even fully

loaded beyond that I also have my

heading set that way not only do I have

the autopilot set which I don't turn on

yet until I've taken off and I'm usually

at about 4 to 600 ft but I mentally pre

turn right hitting 290 turn right right

Hing 290 got it now I have that in my

mind so when I get to the end of the

runway on my takeoff and I'm between 400

ft and 1,000 ft I can hit the autopilot

and the autopilot is going to take me

through those clouds at a safe clim rate

and in the heading and direction that

I'm supposed to be flying there's a lot

that's going on including frequency

changes you're going into the clouds

you're adjusting to your instruments

you're at night you're in an unfamiliar

territory anything you could do to

reduce your workload is a great choice

clearly in this case the autopilot was

not set otherwise they would have made

that right turn heading maybe they were

fidgeting and trying to set the

autopilot obviously this is speculation

at this point all we know is we've had a

tragic disaster here again just days

after the American Airlines crash into

the ptoi thank you so much for watching

and we'll see you in the next one why

not advertise these things that you told

us here I feel like nobody else knows

about this we'll we'll try a little

advertising and see how it goes

congratulations man you have done so

much people love you people look up to

you Kevin PA there financial analyst and

YouTuber meet Kevin always great to get

your take