Seven dead, 19 injured in air ambulance crash in Philadelphia

(AP) — 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.

Authorities sifted through burned cars and charred debris Saturday to gather clues that might explain why an air ambulance exploded into a fiery ball as it crashed to the ground in Philadelphia, leaving no survivors on board.

The small plane carrying six people, including a child who had just undergone treatment at a hospital, crashed onto a busy intersection just after takeoff from the small Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

Authorities couldn’t say why the jet crashed and Adam Thiel, the city’s managing director, said it could be days — or more — until authorities are able to confirm the number of dead and injured.

As of Saturday morning, officials confirmed seven dead — six on the jet, one person on the ground — and 19 injured.

All six people aboard were from Mexico. The child had been treated in Philadelphia for a life-threatening condition and was being transported home, according to Jet Rescue spokesperson Shai Gold. The flight’s final destination was to have been 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 everyone involved in these flights goes through rigorous training.

“When an incident like this happens, it’s shocking and surprising,” Gold told The Associated Press. “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 expected fatalities in the “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.

The Philadelphia crash was the second fatal incident in 15 months for Jet Rescue. In 2023 five crewmembers were killed when their plane overran a runway in the central Mexican state of Morelos and crashed into a hillside.

In Philadelphia, a doorbell camera captured video 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 (5 kilometers) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights.

The 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 registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.

In a post on the social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump said: “So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia.”

“More innocent souls lost,” he added. “Our people are totally engaged.”

A continuous stream of police vehicles and fire trucks initially responded at the crash site, taking over business parking lots. 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 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, it looked like a missile came down.

“There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.

Jet Rescue, which provides global air ambulance services, 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 said an investigator arrived and more officials would be there Saturday.