Five killed as Med Flight Lear hits mountain in night VMC

Shortly after midnight on October 24, a Learjet 35A, a Med Flight air ambulance flight, crashed in mountainous terrain eight miles east of San Diego Brown

By Mary F. Silitch

February 6, 2007

Shortly after midnight on October 24, a Learjet 35A, a Med Flight air ambulance flight, crashed in mountainous terrain eight miles east of San Diego Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM). All five aboard–the ATP-rated captain, copilot and three medical crew–were killed and the jet was destroyed. The crew dropped off a patient in San Diego and took off from SDM two minutes before the crash, intending to return home to Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), N.M., on an IFR flight plan. Dark night VMC prevailed.

At 3 p.m. the previous day, Med Flight dispatched the Learjet from ABQ to Mexico to pick up a patient. The crew picked up a medical crewmember at El Paso and flew to Manzanillo, Mexico, where they picked up the patient and one passenger. They then proceeded to SDM, where they landed at 11:24 p.m. The airplane was on the ground at SDM for about one hour, clearing customs, dropping off the patient and passenger, refueling and filing the flight plan. The pilots requested a cruise altitude of 37,000 feet, with the flight departing SDM direct to Palm Springs, direct to ABQ. Estimated time en route was 1 hour, 15 minutes, with three hours of fuel on board.

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