This is the plane model that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia

It’s been a tragic week for the aviation industry in the United States with two crashes in as many days. Shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, an air ambulance (flight MTS056) operated by Med Jets SA carrying a child patient and family members crashed 40 seconds after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

The plane ploughed into a row of houses fires three miles from the runway. Authorities reported that six people were taken to hospital but it is now believed that everyone on board the plane died.

Among those onboard were a pediatric patient and her mother who were returning to Tijuana in Mexico via Springfield-Branson National Airport in Greene County, Missouri, after undergoing a medical procedure in Philadelphia.

Learjet safety record, accident history

The plane involved was a Learjet 55 ‘Longhorn’ model - American-French, low-wing cantilever business jet monoplane with twin engines mounted on each side of the rear fuselage. It was based on the Learjet 25 which was first introduced in November 1967.

The Learjet 55 made its maiden flight in April 1979 and went into production for commercial use in March 1981. It an carry a maximum of 10 passengers including crew, has a Maximum speed of 541 mph and a maximum flight range of 2,492 miles (4,010 km) with four passengers and fuel reserves.

Learjets have a strong safety record with just one accident involving fatalities this millennium (14 people were killed when a Learjet 45 crash in Mexico in November 2008). Its survival rate is very low. There have been a total of 12 hull-loss accidents involving the Learjet 55 with 22 fatalities.

The Learjet 55 is equipped with an oxygen system for emergency use, with drop-down masks for each passenger. It also has a depressurization warning system. There were 147 of the 55 model built but it is not known how many are currently in service.

The crash in Pennsylvania comes just two days after an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying a combined 67 people collided, likely leaving no survivors, in Washington DC.

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