PHILADELPHIA (AP) — On Saturday, authorities searched among charred rubble and burned cars for evidence that could help them understand why an air ambulance in Philadelphia erupted into a fiery ball as it fell to the ground, killing all occupants.
Adam Thiel, the managing director of the city, stated that it would take days or longer for authorities to verify the number of people killed and injured. Officials reported seven fatalities as of Saturday morning, six aboard the aircraft, one on the ground, and 19 injured.
According to Thiel, authorities were attempting to evaluate the extent of the damage at the sprawling crash scene. Teams were checking the homes in the region by going from house to house. The jet crashed in a very populated location close to Roosevelt Mall at a busy crossroads.
According to Thiel, it is quite probable that the number of casualties will alter. Who was where on the neighborhood’s streets when the jet crashed is one of many unanswered questions.
The death of all six people on board the medical transport jet was verified by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. They were all Mexican victims.
Sheinbaum verified the fatalities in a statement posted on the social media site X on Saturday.
I lament the deaths of six Mexicans in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, plane crash. The families are in continuous communication with the consular officials, and I have requested that the Foreign Affairs Secretary assist in any way that may be required. In a message translated from Spanish, she expressed her support with their friends and loved ones.
On the ground, there were also casualties. According to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, 19 people were hurt and one person in a car died.
The mother, four crew members, and a youngster who had recently finished treatment at Shriners Children’s Hospital were all on board the aircraft.
According to a statement from Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, the patient had been treated there and was being flown back to her native Mexico on a contracted air ambulance when the accident occurred. We are unable to provide any additional information on the patient and her family at this time due to patient privacy concerns.
The flight stopped in Missouri and then continued on to Tijuana.
Based in Mexico, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance operates throughout the United States as well as Mexico. It flew a Mexican-registered aircraft, the Learjet 55.
Shai Gold, spokesperson for Jet Rescue, stated. According to him, all flight crews go through rigorous training, and the aircraft was operated by an experienced crew.
“It’s shocking and surprising when an incident like this happens,” Gold told The Associated Press. We know how important our mission is, so every penny is spent on maintaining every aircraft.
Two days had passed since the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in a generation when the crash occurred. An Army helicopter carrying three soldiers and an American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members crashed in midair in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night. No one survived.
For Jet Rescue, the Philadelphia collision was the second deadly event in 15 months. Five crew members perished in 2023 when their aircraft crashed into a mountainside after overrunning a runway in the state of Morelos in central Mexico.
A doorbell camera in Philadelphia recorded the jet plummeting in a white streak and bursting as it struck the ground close to a major road and shopping center.
We didn’t know the source of the deafening roar that we heard. Jim Quinn, who owns the doorbell camera, stated, “We just turned around and saw the big plume.”
Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which typically handles business jets and charter flights, was less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) away from the disaster site.
At 6:06 p.m., the Learjet 55 took off from the airfield and climbed to 1,600 feet (487 meters) in altitude before swiftly vanishing from radar. The flight tracking website Flight Aware states that it was registered to a business that operated under the name Med Jets.
Medevac Medservice 056 was instructed to turn right when departing by an air traffic controller just after 6 p.m., according to audio collected by LiveATC. It asks, “Are you on frequency?” after repeating the request for about 30 seconds. The controller announces, “We have a lost aircraft,” a few minutes later. We’re trying to figure out what happened because we don’t know exactly what it is. The field will be closed for the time being.
Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting in his residence in the nearby suburb of Mayfair when his house shook and he heard a huge blast.
He remarked, “I thought we were under attack for a second because there was a big explosion.”
Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz was transported to Boston by Jet Rescue, a global air ambulance service, following his shooting in the Dominican Republic in 2019. Jet Rescue also assisted in the transportation of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
The National Transportation Safety Board will oversee the inquiry, according to the FAA. According to the NTSB, additional authorities would be there on Saturday after an investigator arrived on Friday.