Plane with 6 aboard crashes in Philadelphia, setting homes ablaze, unleashing fireball
PHILADELPHIA — A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff Friday evening, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes.
All six people aboard were from Mexico. The child had been treated in Philadelphia for a life-threatening condition and was being transported home to Mexico, according to Shai Gold, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance spokesperson. The flight's final destination was Tijuana after a stop in Missouri.
The patient and her mother were on board along with four crew members. Gold said this was a seasoned crew and that everyone involved in these flights goes through rigorous training.
"When an incident like this happens, it's shocking and surprising," Gold told the AP. "All of the aircraft are maintained, not a penny is spared because we know our mission is so critical."
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference late Friday that officials expect fatalities in this "awful aviation disaster."
"We know that there will be loss," he said.
The plane was registered in Mexico. Jet Rescue is based in Mexico and has operations both there and in the U.S.
The crash came just two days after the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation. On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in midair in Washington, D.C., with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors in that crash.
In Philadelphia, a doorbell camera captured footage of the plane plunging in a streak of white and exploding as it hit the ground near a shopping mall and major roadway.
"All we heard was a loud roar and didn't know where it was coming from. We just turned around and saw the big plume," said Jim Quinn, owner of the doorbell camera.
The crash happened less than 3 miles from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which serves primarily business jets and charter flights.
The plane, a Learjet 55, quickly disappeared from radar after taking off from the airport at 6:06 p.m. and climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet. It was registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
President Donald Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social it was "so sad" to see the crash.
"More innocent souls lost," he said. "Our people are totally engaged."
A continuous stream of police vehicles and fire trucks initially poured at the crash site, taking over business parking lots as emergency workers responded. Within about an hour, the cry of sirens and shouted orders had faded into relative quiet at the edges of the closed-off area, and darkness settled in as drivers passing by peered out trying to see what was happening.
The plane crashed in a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping center in the densely populated neighborhood of Rhawnhurst.
One cellphone video taken by a witness moments after the crash showed a chaotic scene with debris scattered across the intersection. A wall of orange glowed just beyond as a plume of black smoke quickly rose into the sky and sirens blared.
Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting at his home in Mayfair, a nearby neighborhood, when he heard a loud bang and his house shook. He said it felt like a mini earthquake and when he checked his home security camera footage, he said it looked like a missile was coming down.
"There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second," he said.
The plane's owner, Jet Rescue, provides global air ambulance services. The company flew baseball hall of famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and was involved in transporting patients critically ill with COVID-19.
The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. The NTSB, which investigates air crashes, said it was gathering information about the crash.
Contributing: Associated Press writers Rio Yamat, Hallie Golden, and Josh Cornfield.