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What went wrong in the Philly jet crash that killed seven people

✇Axios News
By: Isaac Avilucea Mike D'Onofrio

Investigators are early into their investigation of the plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia that killed seven people.

The big picture: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which has been on the ground since Friday, says it'll take several days — or potentially weeks — to collect and analyze evidence from the sprawling crash site.

The latest: Investigators have recovered the jet's black box, the NTSB said Sunday night.

  • They found it 8 feet underground, along with an enhanced ground proximity warning system that could contain flight data. They also found the plane's engines.

The parts are being sent to the agency's lab in Washington, D.C. to be analyzed.

  • Investigators also obtained surveillance footage and several statements from witnesses. They encouraged the public to email NTSB with video and photos of the crash.

The agency said it expects to have a preliminary report done within 30 days.

  • But a final report with a probable cause won't come for 1-2 years.

Zoom in: The medical jet climbed to about 1,500 feet before descending at a 45-degree angle and crashing on Cottman Avenue about 3.5 miles away from the airport, according to city and federal officials.

  • The crew didn't send any distress messages from the cockpit and didn't respond to a transmission from air traffic control, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said.
  • The jet was in the air for less than a minute.

"It looks like a rocket that comes straight down," David Evans, an airline transport pilot and flight instructor, told the Inquirer. "Even a Lear has some sort of glide capability. It just looks so highly unusual."

Based on air traffic control recordings, the weather at the time of the incident and publicly available flight path data, the two most likely culprits are either spatial disorientation in a low overcast cloud layer immediately after takeoff, or some catastrophic mechanical failure, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick — a pilot — tells us.

  • Juan Browne, a commercial pilot and aviation accident expert, tells Axios spatial disorientation is more common at night when pilots are reliant on their instruments to help them fly.
  • The lack of a distress call and the steep, rapid decline suggest the pilots were "110 percent task saturated" trying to safely navigate, Browne says. "We call it 'helmet fire' in the industry."

Caveat: Only after the official investigation may we have a full understanding of what happened.

  • That the aircraft impacted the ground so violently will no doubt complicate investigators' work, given the state of the physical evidence, Axios' Fitzpatrick adds.

What they're saying: Tammy Duffy, a 59-year-old pharmaceutical representative from Hamilton, New Jersey, tells Axios she was stuck in rush-hour traffic near Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard when the plane struck.

  • The explosion and a fiery mushroom cloud sent people running for their lives.
  • "Time froze," says Duffy, who shut her vents to keep acrid smoke from entering her car. "It reminded me of 9/11."

Commissioner Lisa Deeley said on X the tragedy has shaken the neighborhood where she grew up: "You see these things on TV, but it's totally different when it is in your own backyard," Deeley wrote.

Heather Long, who lives near the crash site, told Axios residents are worried about how they'll get to work this week — since many streets are still barricaded with police officers preventing traffic from entering or leaving.

  • "We don't have any answers," Long said. "I want to know when we can leave."

What's next

"Long-term recovery": That's what the city's Managing Director Adam Thiel is warning residents to brace for as the massive effort to restore normalcy to the neighborhood gets underway.

The crash site along Cottman Avenue — a busy corridor with a mix of homes and businesses — stretches at least a half-mile between Bustleton Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.

  • Aerial footage shows a deep crater in the ground there, and a debris field that officials said likely spans several miles.
  • The full extent of the damage isn't even known yet, officials said: They'll only be able to assess it after the crash investigation.

Mike's thought bubble: I went down to the site Sunday and saw the usually bustling, noisy hub brought to a standstill — a surreal feeling.

  • The scene was eerily quiet even though there were police, investigators and onlookers everywhere, and I watched investigators use an excavator to hoist the charred remains of abandoned cars onto a tow truck.

State of play: Roosevelt Boulevard is expected to open by rush hour Monday morning, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Sunday.

  • The Roosevelt Mall is expected to reopen on Tuesday, Kristen Moore, a spokesperson for mall owner Brixmore Property Group tells Axios.
  • PECO has restored services to the neighborhood, except for some buildings that were impacted by the crash.
  • It's not clear when Cottman Avenue will reopen to traffic.

What we're watching: The city is still working to figure out exactly how many people were displaced or missing due to the crash.

  • "It is possible there are still people … that we don't know about," Thiel said Sunday.

Officials will hold a town hall meeting at 7pm on Wednesday to answer residents' questions and share more resources. The location is TBD.

  • The city is partnering with three organizations so residents can soon donate to people impacted by the crash.

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