Second plane crash of the week: Philadelphia neighborhood

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In the first couple of instants, the people in the second video probably felt like a nuclear warhead had just struck.

A medical plane carrying a child patient and 5 others crashes in Philadelphia, setting homes ablaze
https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-pa-plane-crash-incident-9f5cfa83125137bf523558cc3738a370

INTRO: A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff Friday evening, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which operated the Learjet 55, said in a statement: “We cannot confirm any survivors.” There was no immediate word whether anyone on the ground was killed...

Neighborhood chaos

Doorbell camera captures crash in Northeast Philadelphia
 
That's troubling. Take-off is statistically the most dangerous phase of a flight due to the low altitude and flight attitude (nose up) so a stall might not be recoverable before they run out of altitude.

Looking at the second video though, you can see that the airplane is on fire before it hit the ground. The big fireball is from hitting the ground of course but it's apparent that is was already on fire.

I can imagine that there was medical oxygen onboard for the patient as well as a pressurized cabin. Maybe there was an engine stall due to turbine damage/bird strike/mechanical failure and hot metal causing fuel to burn, cabin oxygen to quickly spread any fire, medical oxygen doing the same?

It's surprising that so far I only hear the news talking about the big fireball after the impact. It's possible that it looks like it's on fire in some videos and just light being reflected off in others.
 
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Seattle said:
That's troubling. Take-off is statistically the most dangerous phase of a flight due to the low altitude and flight attitude (nose up) so a stall might not be recoverable before they run out of altitude.

Looking at the second video though, you can see that the airplane is on fire before it hit the ground. The big fireball is from hitting the ground of course but it's apparent that is was already on fire.

I can imagine that there was medical oxygen onboard for the patient as well as a pressurized cabin. Maybe there was an engine stall due to turbine damage/bird strike/mechanical failure and hot metal causing fuel to burn, cabin oxygen to quickly spread any fire, medical oxygen doing the same?

It's surprising that so far I only hear the news talking about the big fireball after the impact.
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Hard for even TFG to blame DEI or Bottygig for this one.
 
exchemist said:
Hard for even TFG to blame DEI or Bottygig for this one.
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There's always the Mexican drug cartels. It was going to Mexico and all onboard were Mexican citizens. Someone was upset about the renaming of the Gulf of America. There's always options...
 
The pilot was possibly a wholly unqualified DEI, someone the company may have hired with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. Or if it was a birdstrike then it could have been a migrating bird coming in from Mexico, or from Canada. And it was a clear night, so why wouldn't the bird just move up or down? How do I know these things? Because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don't.

;)
 
Sarkus said:
The pilot was possibly a wholly unqualified DEI, someone the company may have hired with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. Or if it was a birdstrike then it could have been a migrating bird coming in from Mexico, or from Canada. And it was a clear night, so why wouldn't the bird just move up or down? How do I know these things? Because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don't.

;)
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It's OK to be common. Someone has to be...:)
 
Sarkus is right, it was on fire before it fell out of the sky.

Jeez, that thing dive-bombed. An explosion must have ripped it apart and destroyed its aerodynamic stability, resulting in a high speed death dive.
 
Based on the steep angle descent, the plane looks like it stalled for some reason, perhaps loss of thrust or center of gravity too far back.
 
(Q) said:
Based on the steep angle descent, the plane looks like it stalled for some reason, perhaps loss of thrust or center of gravity too far back.
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The fact that it was on fire during descent points to an initial cause slightly more catastrophic than a stall or CoG problem.
 
Saw it from a third perspective and there was no fire. The landing lights were on, which is likely why the image bloomed out in the previous video. And since you could see both the landing lights and the anticollision strobes, the electrical system was still working at least.
 
DaveC426913 said:
The fact that it was on fire during descent points to an initial cause slightly more catastrophic than a stall or CoG problem.
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I saw no reporting on any fires, where has this been stated a fact?
 
billvon said:
Saw it from a third perspective and there was no fire. The landing lights were on, which is likely why the image bloomed out in the previous video. And since you could see both the landing lights and the anticollision strobes, the electrical system was still working at least.
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I think that is correct. It stalled in any event. Those doorbell cameras are very good in low light (sometimes using IR as well) and can cause the "bloom out" as you say.
 
(Q) said:
Based on the steep angle descent, the plane looks like it stalled for some reason, perhaps loss of thrust or center of gravity too far back.
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Possible but not super likely. Last reported speed was 204 kts via FlightAware. Stall speed for that aircraft is ~90kts. You can get into an accelerated stall under very unusual circumstances at higher airspeeds, but you have to try pretty hard.

www.flightaware.com

MTS56 Med Jets Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware

Track Med Jets #56 flight from Northeast Philadelphia to Springfield
www.flightaware.com www.flightaware.com
 
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