Medical jet carrying child patient, her mother, and four others crashes in US, setting homes ablaze

On Friday evening, a medical transport plane carrying a child patient, her mother, and four other individuals crashed in a residential area of Philadelphia shortly after takeoff, with the resulting explosion and fireball engulfing several homes. All six people on board were from Mexico.

According to Shai Gold, a spokesperson for Jet Rescue air ambulance, the child had been receiving treatment in Philadelphia for a life-threatening illness and was being transported back to Mexico. The flight's final destination was Tijuana, with a stopover in Missouri. In addition to the patient and her mother, there were four crew members on board.

Gold stated that this was an experienced crew, and all personnel involved in such flights undergo rigorous training. "When an accident like this occurs, it's shocking and unexpected," Gold told the Associated Press. "All aircraft are maintained, at all costs, because we know our missions are critical."

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stated at a press conference later Friday that officials anticipate fatalities from this "horrific aviation disaster." "We know there will be loss," he said. The aircraft was registered in Mexico. Jet Rescue is based in Mexico and has operations in both Mexico and the United States.

This crash occurred two days after the U.S. experienced one of its deadliest air disasters in recent decades. On Wednesday night, an American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew members collided with an Army helicopter carrying 3 soldiers over Washington, D.C. There were no survivors in that incident.

In Philadelphia, a doorbell camera captured the plane falling with a white trail and exploding upon impact with the ground, near a shopping center and a major road. "We just heard a loud bang, didn't know where it came from. We just turned around and saw a huge plume of smoke," said Jim Quinn, the owner of the doorbell camera.

The crash site is less than 3 miles from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves corporate and charter flights. The aircraft, a Learjet 55, disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from the airport at 6:06 PM and climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet. According to the flight tracking website Flight Aware, the plane was en route to Springfield, Missouri, and was registered under a company named Med Jets.

President Donald Trump posted on the social media platform Truth Social that it was "very sad" to see the crash. "More innocent souls have perished," he said. "Our people are working hard on it."

Initially, a stream of police and fire vehicles flooded the scene, taking over commercial parking lots as an emergency response to the crash and fire, directing people away and setting up a perimeter that extended several blocks in all directions. In about an hour, the sirens and shouts gradually subsided at the edges of the cordoned-off area, darkness fell, and passing drivers craned their necks, trying to see what had happened.

The plane crashed near a busy intersection in the densely populated neighborhood of Rhawnhurst, where there is an open-air shopping center, the Roosevelt Mall. A cell phone video taken by a witness after the crash showed a chaotic scene with debris scattered across the intersection. An orange glow shone beyond the intersection, a plume of black smoke quickly rose into the sky, and alarms wailed.

Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting at his home in the nearby Mayfair neighborhood on Friday when he heard a loud bang, and his house shook. He said it felt like a minor earthquake, and when he checked his home security camera footage, he said it looked like a missile had dropped. "There was a big explosion, so for a minute I thought we were under attack," he said.

Jet Rescue, the owner of the aircraft, provides global air ambulance services. The Mexico-based company transported Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and has been involved in transporting critically ill patients infected with COVID-19. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said the National Transportation Safety Board would lead the investigation. The NTSB, which investigates air crashes, said they were gathering information about the crash.