On Saturday night, The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday’s plane crash in Philadelphia has been ruled an accident. That collision of an air ambulance in a densely populated part of the city killed seven people and injured more than a dozen others. NBC 5’s Allie Spillyards has the latest on the investigation.
A day after the tragedy, transportation officials warned the crash site of a Jet Rescue Air Ambulance in Northeast Philadelphia could remain an active scene for days or even weeks.
“I want to stress this was a high-impact crash, and the plane is highly fragmented,” said National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.
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WATCH HEREHomendy said their focus is finding the cockpit voice recorder.
The agency hopes it provides answers about why the Learjet 55 took a nosedive less than a minute after departing northeast Philadelphia airport.
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SIGN UP “The condition could be fragmented, could be damaged. I will say that we have an incredible team at our headquarters, our office of research and engineering who have significant expertise in repairing damaged cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders. In fact, we’re known throughout the world. Other countries send their black boxes to us to fix. And so hopefully, once we can find it, that’s the biggest question right now, we can take that back to our lab and evaluate it,” she said.
A spokesperson for the air ambulance company said they were transporting a pediatric patient, who had come to the U.S. for life-saving treatment, home to Mexico.
The patient, an escort, and four crew members died in the fiery collision, along with one person on the ground.
Philadelphia’s mayor said 19 others were injured.
The NTSB has ruled the crash an accident, though it’s still working to determine a cause.
“My initial thoughts are that there's some kind of an elevator issue with the airplane causing it to pitch down and the pilots not being able to arrest the descent,” said aviation attorney and pilot Ladd Sanger.
Sanger said the agency could consider several scenarios.
“First, the weather was pretty poor from a visibility standpoint, and there have been business jet crashes where, on takeoff, the pilots got spatial disorientation and lost control of the airplane. I've also worked on cases where there has been an autopilot malfunction,” he said.
Sanger said there’s also the possibility of a bird or drone strike or ice accumulation. It’s just too soon to know.
Saturday, Secretary Of Transportation Sean Duffy shared a video to "X" saying he’s committed to transparency.
“In the coming days, we're going to have more announcements. I want Americans to feel confident in American air travel,” said Secretary Duffy.
The FAA is working with the NTSB to investigate the crash.
