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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.
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.
