The voice recorder on the jet that crashed in N.E. Philly likely hadn’t worked for several years, federal investigators say

A key piece of hardware that experts had said could solve the mystery in the fatal crash of the medical transport Learjet that crashed into a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, killing seven people and injuring dozens more, turned out to be useless.

The cockpit voice recorder, recovered eight feet deep at the bottom of the jet’s impact crater near Roosevelt Mall, was repaired after extensive damage, but according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday, when investigators played back the 30-minute-long recording, they found the device “had likely not been recording audio for several years.”

There was brief communication with the Northeast Philadelphia Airport control tower, but no signs of trouble over radio, the NTSB said. No distress calls were made by the pilot or copilot.

The jet also included an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System, which could reveal more detailed flight tracking information than is now available, but that device was sent to its manufacturer for recovery and the results are not back.

The preliminary report leaves open several unanswered questions about the condition of the jet on its sharp descent, including the status of the engines or other critical flight components, such as the stabilizers that help an aircraft fly straight.

The jet — a medical transport Learjet 55 owned by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, headquartered in Mexico City — crashed just after 6 p.m. All six occupants aboard the 43-year-old aircraft died, including Valentina Guzmán Murillo, 11, and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, who were on their way home after Valentina had received four months of treatment at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia.

One person, Steven Dreuitt, 37, was killed when flames engulfed his car. His 9-year-old son survived but suffered severe burns over 90% of his body and remains in a Boston hospital that specializes in pediatric burn patients. At least 24 other people on the ground suffered injuries — four of them critically — and several hundred homes were damaged, some of them set ablaze.

As the aircraft slammed into the sidewalk at more than 278 mph, the explosion showered the area with fiery debris and a massive fireball that lit up the sky. The inferno was captured from several angles on dashcams, doorbell cameras, and cell phones and went viral on social media. Several cars and rowhouses along the busy route were instantly set ablaze.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB investigator, said that the lack of a functional voice recorder would make investigating the nature and cause of the crash much more difficult — and likely was a violation of FAA rules for foreign air carriers.

“It’s a critical piece of safety equipment in jet-powered airplanes for this exact reason. It also begs the question why it wasn’t working,” he said. “That really shows a black mark on this company and its oversight.”

A spokesperson for Jet Rescue did not respond to requests for comment.

The jet had taken off at 6:07 p.m. from runway 24 at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, and crashed just three miles away around 6:08 p.m.

Tower audio of the takeoff revealed that an air traffic controller had a seemingly normal exchange with the crew as it departed, with the pilot calmly signing off, “… thank you, good day.” But moments after, the crew failed to switch over and talk on another frequency as required. The crew was not heard from again.

During takeoff, the jet quickly climbed to 1,650 feet before veering to the left in a nosedive and hitting the ground at a steep angle of descent. The crash obliterated the plane.

Hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers swarmed the area to put out homes and cars on fire from the jet fuel or burning pieces of aircraft that struck them.

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said he could not believe how nightmarish the retail strip had become. “I felt like we were in the middle of a war zone,” he said.

The Learjet 55 had flown to Philadelphia from Florida on an “uneventful” flight earlier in the day, Jet Rescue spokesperson Shai Gold said at the time.

The heavily used jet had flown 12 flights in the five days before the crash, covering 9,400 miles. In the last year it had 163 takeoffs before the fateful incident, flight records show.

The pilot, Alan Montoya Perales, 46, and his copilot, Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, 43, had thousands of hours of relevant flight experience, Gold said. Also killed were Jet Rescue members Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, 41, a paramedic, and Raul Meza Arredonda, 41, a doctor.

While an older aircraft, the Learjet 55 is considered by experts to be a safe jet that was a marvel of speed and luxury when it was launched. NTSB records show at least 15 investigations into incidents for the Learjet 55, as far back as 1986. Most of the investigations found faults due to pilots who made errors navigating runway landings and takeoffs, sometimes in bad weather. Thursday’s NTSB report noted no problems with weather conditions.

In one report about a fatal crash of a Learjet 55 in Venezuela in 2022, the crew declared an emergency during a landing approach due to a technical problem, apparently with its thrust reversers. On a second approach the jet went off the runway and struck a hill, killing all six occupants.

In 2023, a Jet Rescue Learjet 35A, an earlier model, was involved in a fatal crash that killed all five crew members aboard. There were no passengers on the flight, which overran a runway. The jet crashed after landing at Cuernavaca Airport in Morelos, Mexico, according to news reports.

And in 2019, a Jet Rescue Learjet 35 had a fire during a takeoff from Toluca Airport in Mexico that affected its braking system. It was able to land successfully with no injuries or deaths.