The Philadelphia Air Ambulance Association reports a fireball created by a medical jet crash two days after the Mayfair, MD, mini earthquake
A medical transport jet crash in Philadelphia set homes ablaze and unleashed a fireball into the night sky. The FAA said two people were on the plane.
The crash came just two days after 67 people were killed in a midair collision between American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C. That was the worst aviation disaster in the United States over the last two decades.
The plane in Philadelphia appeared to be a Learjet 55 that quickly disappeared from radar after takeoff. Med Jets was the company it was registered to and it was en route to Springfield, Missouri.
Michael Schiavone was sitting in his home in Mayfair on Friday when he heard a loud bang. It felt like a mini earthquake and when he looked at the security camera footage, it appeared as if a missile was about to come down. “There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.
Flight data showed a small jet taking off from the airport at 6:06 p.m. and disappearing from radar about 30 seconds later after climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet.
The Roosevelt Mall is less than four miles from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. City officials said the plane was in the air for only a minute before it plummeted to the ground.
One cellphone 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 past the intersection as black smoke rose into the sky, while some witnesses were heard crying and sirens blared.
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.
All six people were killed in a small plane crash in northeastern Philadelphia on Friday night and local and federal authorities are looking into it.
At a press conference on Saturday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed that one person on the ground was killed in the crash. The person was in a car. Though she didn’t say how many people were in critical condition, she said at least 19 people were injured.
“This is still a very active and fluid situation,” Thiel said at the press conference. “It will likely be days or more until we are able to definitively answer the question about the number of folks who perished in this tragedy and the outcome for those who are injured.”
The witnesses saw an explosion in the shape of a mushroom cloud. While videos and photos of the aftermath showed a long stretch of a Philadelphia neighborhood in flames and covered in debris. Five fires erupted following the crash and have since been extinguished, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said Saturday.
The Flight Associated with the Flight Rescue Air Ambulance of a Child Patient at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Los Alamos, Mexico
“It’s possible that if you are somewhere not even near here, somewhere between this location and Northeast Airport, you may go out and find something in your yard,” he said.
The child patient at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia returned to her home country after finishing treatment for an illness.
The Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which specializes in air ambulance service across Mexico, Latin America and the U.S., operated the plane that carried the six people.
The company was contracted to bring the child home to Mexico, according to the spokesman for Jet Rescue.
A pilot, copilot, doctor and paramedic were on the plane, Gold said. No names will be released until all the families have been notified, the company said.
It is very sad to see the plane go down. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged. The first responders are being praised for their work. More to follow. He wrote that he was God Bless you all.