Accident Overview
On October 24, 2004, at approximately 0025 Pacific daylight time, a Learjet 35A twin-turbofan airplane, registration N30DK, collided with mountainous terrain shortly after takeoff from Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM) near San Diego, California. The aircraft was owned and operated by Med Flight Air Ambulance, Inc. (MFAA) on a repositioning flight under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. An instrument flight rules flight plan was filed, but night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time. The flight was the fourth and final leg of a trip that had originated the previous day.
Departure and Impact
The flight departed Brown Field Municipal Airport at 0023. About two minutes after takeoff, the airplane impacted mountainous terrain. The captain, copilot, and three medical crewmembers on board received fatal injuries, and the aircraft was destroyed.
Probable Cause and Contributing Factors
According to the official investigation, the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the flight crew to maintain terrain clearance during a VFR departure, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain. Additionally, the air traffic controller issued a clearance that transferred responsibility for terrain clearance from the flight crew to the controller, failed to provide terrain clearance instructions to the flight crew, and failed to advise the flight crew of the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) alerts. Contributing to the accident was the pilots' fatigue, which likely contributed to their degraded decision-making.