Plane with 6 aboard crashes in Philadelphia, setting homes ablaze and unleashing a fireball

A medical transport jet with a child patient and five others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff Friday evening, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said the patient and another passenger were on board along with four crew members.

“We cannot confirm any survivors,” the company said in a statement. “Our immediate concern is for the patient’s family, our personnel, their families and other victims that may have been hurt on the ground.”

Mayor Cherelle Parker said Friday night at a news conference that information on fatalities wasn’t immediately known but several homes and vehicles had been damaged.

“This is still an active scene under investigation,” she said.

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.

Over 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, the owner of the doorbell camera.

The crash happened less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights.

Vadim Osipov, 37, who is originally from Ukraine but currently lives in Southampton, witnessed the crash and originally thought that a nearby gas station had exploded because of the “mushroom explosion” he witnessed following the crash.

Once he got his bearings and looked to film what was happening, he said he became scared that it could’ve been a missile or rocket.

“I’m from Ukraine … but I know there’s war. You never know,” Osipov said. “Maybe there’s another world war coming here.”

Robin Tees, 48, of Bucks County was at the scene following the crash and said that the crash “hits home more than it did when it’s somewhere else,” alluding to the crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday.

“I think we’re going to see more of it. Just a hunch,” he said. “Washington D.C. being the capital of America. Philadelphia is where it all began. It looks like it’s going to happen more and more, for whatever reason.”

At-Large Councilmember Jim Harrity said on social media that his “prayers go out to those on board, their families, those on the ground, and all of our first responders who are working tirelessly to manage the crisis.” He added that he’ll work with Councilmember Michael Driscoll, who represents District 6 in Northeast Philadelphia, “to help monitor the situation.”

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 (487 meters). It was en route to Springfield, Missouri, and 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.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro said he is offering all “Commonwealth resources as they respond to the small private plane crash in Northeast Philly.”

A continuous stream of police vehicles and fire trucks initially poured into the scene, taking over business parking lots as emergency responders to the crash and fire directed people away and set up a perimeter stretching blocks in each direction. 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 cell phone video taken by a witness moments after the plane crashed showed a chaotic scene with debris scattered across the intersection. A wall of orange glowed just beyond the intersection 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, on Friday 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, based in Mexico, 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.

——

Associated Press writers Rio Yamat, Hallie Golden, and Josh Cornfield contributed to this report.