The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday issued a preliminary report on the Jan. 31 airplane crash on Cottman Avenue, near Roosevelt Mall.
The Learjet 55 air ambulance was destroyed when it crashed at 6:07 p.m.
The two pilots, two medical crewmembers and two passengers died, including a girl who had just completed treatment at Shriners Hospital for Children and her mother.
Steven Dreuitt, 37, was killed inside a vehicle when the crash happened. Four people were seriously injured and 20 incurred minor injuries.
Flight track data obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration revealed the flight departed runway 24 at Northeast Philadelphia Airport about 6:06 p.m., with the intended destination of Springfield-Branson National Airport, Springfield, Missouri, before its final destination in Tijuana, Mexico.
The airplane proceeded to the southwest before it turned right slightly and then entered a gradual left turn. The airplane continued in the left turn and reached an altitude of 1,650 feet.
The flight crew was in communication with the air traffic control tower at the time of the accident and there were no distress calls received from the flight crew.
The airplane initially impacted a commercial sign before crashing into a concrete sidewalk.
Security camera videos depicted a large explosion associated with the initial impact. The wreckage debris field was about 1,410 feet in length and 840 feet wide.
Wreckage and debris penetrated numerous homes, commercial buildings and vehicles in the area, resulting in extensive fire and impact damage.
The airplane was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered from the initial impact crater under 8 feet of soil and debris and was sent to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory, Washington, D.C., for processing and readout. After extensive repair and cleaning, the 30-minute-long tape-based recording medium revealed it did not record the accident flight and had likely not been recording audio for several years. ••
