Philadelphia – A child patient, mother and four others crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after taking off Friday evening, exploding in a fire truck that swallowed several homes.
In a statement, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, who operated the Learjet 55, said: “We cannot confirm the survivors.” There was no immediate word on whether the person on the ground had been killed.
All six on board were from Mexico. According to Jet Rescue spokesman Shy Gold, the child was treated in Philadelphia for his life-threatening condition and was taken home. The final destination of the flight was Tijuana after a stop in Missouri.
The patient and her mother were on board with four crew members. Gold said this is a veteran crew and everyone involved in these flights is undergoing rigorous training.
“When something like this happens, it's shocking and surprising,” Gold told The Associated Press. “Every aircraft are maintained, and Penny cannot escape because we know our mission is very important.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a press conference late Friday that officials are hoping to die from a “severe aviation disaster.”
“We know there is a loss,” he said.
The plane was registered in Mexico. Jet Rescue is based in Mexico and operates both there and in the US.
The crash happened just two days after the most deadly US disaster of a generation. On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in the air in Washington, DC, carrying three soldiers and an army helicopter. There were no survivors.
The crash in Philadelphia was the second fatalest incident in 15 months of jet rescue. In 2023, five crew members were killed when they overrun the runway in Morelos, central Mexico, Mexico, crashed onto the hillside.
In Philadelphia, he filmed video of a plane streaked in white and exploded as he hit the ground near a shopping mall and a major road.
“All we heard was a loud roo and we didn't know where it came from,” said Jim Quinn, owner of the doorbell camera.
The crash occurred less than three miles from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which mainly serves business jets and charter flights.
Learjet 55 took off from the airport at 6:06pm and quickly disappeared from the radar after climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet. According to flight tracking website Flight Aware, it was registered with a company operated as Med Jets.
In a post on social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump said:
“The more innocent souls have been lost,” he added. “Our people are completely engaged.”
A continuous stream of police and fire trucks first responded with crash sites and took over business parking. Within about an hour, siren screams and screams cried relatively quietly at the edge of the closed area. Then the darkness subsided, and the driver peered into the door trying to see what was going on.
The plane crashed at a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, a densely populated neighborhood outdoor shopping centre in Rhawnhurst.
A video from a cell phone, taken by an eyewitness at the moment of the crash, showed a chaotic scene of debris scattered around the intersection. The black feathers of smoke floated in the sky, and the orange walls glowed right next to me as sirens roared.
37-year-old Michael Ciaborne was sitting at his nearby home in Mayfair. He said it felt like a mini earthquake and when he checked his home security cameras it looked like a missile came down.
“There was a huge explosion and we thought for a moment we were under attack,” he said.
Jet Rescue, a global aviation ambulance service, was shot dead in the Dominican Republic in 2019, and after being involved in transporting critically ill patients with Covid-19, he flew baseball hall of fame David Ortiz to Boston.
The FAA said the National Traffic Safety Commission will lead the investigation. The NTSB said investigators will arrive and more officials will arrive on Saturday.
Associated Press authors Rio Yamat, Hallie Golden and Josh Cornfield contributed to this report.
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