A Learjet 55 medevac flight crashed shortly after departure from Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE | KPNE) on 31 January. The flight departed at approximately 23:06:16 UTC (18:06 local time) bound for Springfield, Missouri (SGF | KSGF). Within a minute the flight crashed less than three miles from the end of the runway. The FAA reports there were six people on board.
The Learjet was broadcasting ADS-B data, which was received by the Flightradar24 network. The last ADS-B message with a position update was received at 23:07:02 with the aircraft located at 40.04924, -75.0589 (as shown in the image above).
ADS-B messages received for an additional two seconds did not include position information, but did include altitude and vertical rate. The highest vertical rate reported by the aircraft was -11,008 feet per minute.
Data available for download
Playback of the flight may be accessed here. The files available for download below include the standard CSV and KML files and the granular, high-frequency data in CSV format.
Aircraft information
XA-UCI is a 43 year old Learjet 55 operated in an Air Ambulance or Medevac configuration.
Weather information
The METAR for Northeast Philadelphia Airport valid at the time of departure indicated visibility of 6 miles and overcast skies at 400 feet.
| KPNE 312314Z 25009KT 7SM OVC006 09/09 A2972 RMK AO2 CIG 004V008 T00940094 $ | 2025-01-31 23:14:00 |
| KPNE 312254Z 22009KT 6SM BR OVC004 09/09 A2971 RMK AO2 RAE45 SLP062 P0002 T00890089 $ | 2025-01-31 22:54:00 |
Investigative updates
2 February 2025
The NTSB says it has recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the Learjet. It was found at the initial impact site, 8 feet below ground level. Investigators have also recovered the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), which they say could also yield helpful data.
6 March 2025
The NTSB has released its preliminary report on the crash. Of note in the report, the NTSB says it recovered the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder, and spent an extensive amount of time salvaging the tape media to access the recording. However, the agency says, “The CVR did not record the accident flight and during the audition it was determined that the CVR had likely not been recording audio for several years.”
The manufacturer of the GPWS device is still attempting to recover any data from the non-volatile media that may exist.
