Quote: reached 11,000 feet. But 10 minutes and 62 miles into the flight
I used to fly Lears, 23/24/25 models. Normal flight path would be to be at FL 41.0 20 minutes after take and 100 mile down range.
One possibility already mentioned is a pressurization problem right after takeoff. I flew Lear 35A's and as I said above, if you forgot to turn on the pressurization, a loud hot emergency stream of bleed air would automatically come on at 9500 feet (from what I now see online).
From an old discussion of the 1999 Payne Stewart Lear crash in another forum:
The Lear in question was an early series LR35, using the 20 series of alternate pressurization. Both crewmembers were inexperienced in type. Whereas in later airplanes, in fact most LR35's, the emergency pressurization is automatic, in the early LR35's and in 20 series Lears, the emergency pressurization required a manual action through the pilot foot warmers...otherwise any air would be diverted externally through the defroster ducts outside the airplane.
Almost certainly the crew failed to perform this action.
The mysterious death of Payne Stewart [Archive] - Glock Talk
Did the crew level at 11000 feet with a pressurization problem perhaps, get bogged down looking for the checklist and the foot warmer knob and forget about the rising terrain? At 0300 local you wouldn't expect to be held down by ATC (below the MEA
) for traffic in that area.