MED FLIGHT AIR AMBULANCE

NTSB Identification: LAX05FA015
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Sunday, October 24, 2004 in San Diego, CA
Aircraft: Learjet 35A, registration: N30DK
Injuries: 5 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On October 24, 2004, at 0025 Pacific daylight time, a Learjet 35A twin-turbofan airplane, N30DK, impacted mountainous terrain approximately 8 miles east of the Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM), near San Diego, California. Med Flight Air Ambulance, Inc., of Albuquerque, New Mexico, owned and operated the airplane. The airline transport pilot captain, the commercial licensed copilot, and the three medical crew on board were fatally injured. The airplane was destroyed. Dark night visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan had been filed for the 14 CFR Part 91 repositioning flight. The flight departed Brown Field at 0023 after dropping a medical patient off, and was returning to Albuquerque (ABQ).

According to Med Flight Air Ambulance personnel, they utilized the airplane as a medical transport airplane. When medical passengers were on board, they operated it as an FAR Part 135 flight under the operating certificate of ATI Jet, Inc., El Paso, Texas (ELP). On October 23, 2004, at 1500, they dispatched the flight to Mexico to pickup a medical patient. The flight departed Albuquerque, landed at El Paso to pickup a medical crewmember, and departed for Manzanillo, Mexico (MMZO), where it picked up the medical patient and one passenger. The flight then departed and flew to Brown Field where it landed at 2324 on the 23rd to drop off the medical patient and passenger. The airplane was on the ground at Brown Field for approximately an hour prior to departing on the accident leg of the flight.

According to a fixed based operator (FBO) and customs personnel at Brown Field, the airplane landed and taxied into the FBO for fuel. The customs personnel met the airplane while it was parked at the FBO. The FBO fueled the airplane with 439 gallons of jet fuel. The flight crew called the San Diego flight service station (FSS) at 0002 on the 24th and filed their flight plan to Albuquerque. The flight plan called for a 0020 departure with a cruise altitude of 37,000 feet (Flight Level FL 370), departing Brown Field direct to Palm Springs (PSP), direct to Albuquerque. The estimated time en route was 1 hour 15 minutes, and there was 3 hours of fuel on board.

At 0024:12, N30DK contacted the Southern California (SoCal) TRACON (terminal radar approach control). The flight crew indicated that they had departed from runway 8 at SDM and wanted to pickup their IFR clearance. The SoCal controller told the pilots to set their transponder to 7372 and ident. At 0024:23, the SoCal controller told the flight crew that they were radar identified. He instructed the pilots to turn to a heading of 020 degrees, maintain VFR (visual flight rules), and expect their IFR clearance above 5,000 feet. Preliminary review of the radar data revealed that the airplane flew along a track approximately in line with the extended runway centerline. The airplane's maximum altitude was 2,300 feet msl. The last radar return was approximately 0025:30, at an elevation of 2,300 feet, depicting a 240-knot ground speed. The low altitude warning alerted over the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) system during the flight's last two radar returns.

At 1153, the weather observation facility for Brown Field reported the following: wind calm; ceiling overcast at 2,100 feet agl; visibility 8 statute miles; temperature 14 degrees Celsius; dew point 12 degrees Celsius; and altimeter setting 29.93 inches of mercury. The San Diego Police Department's aviation group was the first entity to arrive on scene. According to the first responders, they arrived approximately 20 minutes after the accident in a helicopter. The SoCal controller provided radar vectors toward the accident airplane's last radar return. The first responders reported encountering a broken-to-overcast layer of clouds as they neared Otay mountain (they located the wreckage southeast of Otay mountain's highest peak). The first responders observed what they believed to be an accident site through their night vision goggles and infrared imaging. The first responders headed south of the accident site where they were able to fly under the cloud layer. They landed their helicopter approximately 50 feet below the accident site on a relatively level section of the mountain. They indicated that the main impact crater was approximately 75-100 feet below the cloud layer.

The accident site was at 32 degrees 34.119 minutes north latitude and 116 degrees 50.665 west longitude on the west side of a mountain ridge. The initial impact point was at the 2,256-foot level of the 32-degree mountain slope. The wreckage debris was distributed approximately 300 feet up the side of the mountain along a magnetic bearing of 040 degrees. The impact crater was approximately 48.5 feet wide from crater edge to crater edge. The impact crater displayed three large, deep, and oval impact marks connected by a shallower impact line. One of the oval marks was on the left side of the crater, one was in the approximate center of the crater, and the third oval mark was on the right side of the impact crater. A piece of tip tank with a red navigation light was approximately 9 feet to the left side of the crater. Another piece of tip tank with a green navigation light was approximately 40 yards to the right of the impact crater.

Small chest-high scrub brush were throughout the accident site. The scrub brush displayed fire damage that was sustained in wild fires earlier in the year. The scrub brush located adjacent to and just west of the impact crater displayed branches that were freshly broken. A straight edge was placed on top of the broken branches and an inclinometer was placed on the straight edge. The scrub brush branches were broken approximately 10 degrees lower on the left side of the impact crater than on the right.

All of airplane's flight control surfaces were identified throughout the debris field. All fracture features were bent and distorted. The horizontal and vertical stabilizers remained attached to each other, but were separated from the rest of the airplane. The rudder and elevator remained attached to the vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer, respectively. The engines separated from the fuselage and were relatively close to the tail section. A portion of the right inboard wing section with the flap and spoiler attached remained in the impact crater. Portions of the left aileron, flap, and spoiler, and the right aileron were located in the debris field. The right engine had separated from its cowling and was fragmented. The left engine remained enclosed by its cowling, but also sustained significant impact damage. The compressor blades for both engines displayed severe bending opposite the direction of rotation to the extent that many were bent nearly 90 degrees and some were liberated from their rotor disk attach points. The cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the accident site and was transported to the National Transportation Safety Board Vehicle Recorder Laboratory in Washington, DC, for further examination.
 

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