The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed in a preliminary report Thursday that the cockpit voice recorder of the medical transport aircraft that crashed fatally in Philadelphia on January 31 had not functioned for years. The crash killed all six people on board the plane and one on the ground, and injured at least two dozen others.
The Learjet 55 crashed into a residential commercial area immediately after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport and caught fire on impact. On board the plane was a 31-year-old mother and her 11-year-old daughter, who had been under medical care at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia Hospital. Plane victims included Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, Captain Alan Montoya Perales, Copilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, and paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, all Mexicans.
According to the NTSB report, the cockpit voice recorder was discovered 8 feet below the ground, badly damaged, and exposed to fluids, rendering the 30-minute tape useless. The failure of the crew to make distress calls contributes to the complexity of the investigation. NTSB officials were dismayed by the malfunctioning recorders, which are a crucial source for being aware of the reason behind crashes.
Past NTSB Chairman Jim Hall emphasized the loss of a functional voice recorder is an irretrievable loss of valuable data. The rapidity of the crash, without a distress call, suggests the crisis unfolded too rapidly for the crew to respond.
Jeff Guzzetti, now retired NTSB investigator, explained that even without cockpit recording, the accident cause would still be determined through circumstantial evidence by the agency. He queried why the voice recorder was never inspected as a routine part of the maintenance protocol.
The NTSB has not yet determined the reason for the crash but is considering information from a ground-based warning system that may be significant. The theory of spatial disorientation in which pilots lose their way during inclement weather is thought by experts to be a factor in this accident, as it is in the deadly JFK Jr. crash.
Other than the unfortunate deaths, those on the ground have begun demanding compensation, including a man who sustained severe burns after his car was engulfed by jet fuel. The accident follows a chain of other air accidents, which cast doubt over the safety of flights.
