A luxury medical transport Learjet twin-engine plane carrying a pediatric patient who was headed home to Tijuana, Mexico after receiving lifesaving care, the patient's mother, and four others crashed outside the Roosevelt Mall Friday night in Northeast Philadelphia near Cottman and Bustleton avenues, causing a mass casualty event with explosions, fatalities and multiple homes on fire.
All six individuals aboard the plane died in the crash along with one person on the ground. At least 19 people were injured, but those totals could still rise as investigations continue.
According to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, there were six people on board, who were on assignment for a medical job. The six included a pilot, medic, flight crew, a young female patient and her mother.
According to a spokesperson for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the patient was a young girl returning to Tijuana, Mexico. The patient was sponsored by a third-partner charity to undergo lifesaving treatment in the United States and was going home after her course of care at Shriner's Hospital in Philadelphia.
6abc.com said that according to the FAA, a Learjet 55 departed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri when it went down.
According to FlightAware, the Learjet 55 departed at 6:06 p.m. The operator of the plane was Med Jets “Mantrust.” Flight data showed speed at 235 mph with an altitude of 1,600 feet at departure.
Flight logs indicate that the medical jet had a busy week, with 11 different flights across the continent. It had landed in Miami on Thursday and flew to Philadelphia earlier Friday afternoon.
The plane was only in the air for about a minute after take off before it crashed.
There are multiple people injured following the 6:30 p.m. crash and several homes are engulfed in flames in the Philadelphia 2nd District, according to the Philadelphia 7th Police District Advisory Council via Facebook.
At a news conference at approximately 9:30 p.m., Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said that at the time there were no reports available on the number of fatalities but that several homes and vehicles were impacted by the crash.
According to FoxNews, a senior Philadelphia fire official said six homes and six vehicles went up in flames as a result of the accident.
Per CBS, plane debris hit multiple cars in the area, and several businesses are on fire near the 2500 block of Cottman Ave. Neighbors reported to the news that their homes shook during the plane's descension.
Philadelphia Fire Department and EMS have requested a mass casualty response, per emergency reports.
At 6:07 p.m., a call came in on the Philadelphia Police Department's Northeast Division, 2nd and 15th Districts emergency radio, "There was just a huge explosion around Cottman Ave."
Then, another emergency dispatch, this time, elevated in emphasis: "Something just crashed over by the Roosevelt Mall!"
The incident site is about three miles south of the end of Runaway 24 at Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
The airport is the state's third busiest airport, providing "on-call" U.S. Customs, Immigrations and United States Department of Agriculture services to corporate international travel, per its website. Surrounding the airport is a high density residential area to the northeast and low density housing to the east and west.
A resident's Ring camera caught what appears to be a plane falling out of the sky before a fiery explosion follows. Watch it here.
Police began clearing traffic from Cottman Avenue by 6:11 p.m. and crowd control was needed at Bradford and Cottman to move the crowd away from the area, per police emergency traffic.
At 6:13 p.m., fire officials reported a fire on the roof of Mattress Firm Cottman, as well as several house fires behind Mattress Firm.
Multiple wires are down as well on top of vehicles. There are reports of gas lines on fire, as of 6:23 p.m.
About an hour after the crash, first responders reported finding bodies on top of various buildings and cars in the Northeast.
Police have shut Cottman Avenue down from Rhawn Street to Roosevelt Boulevard.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro originally issued a statement via X:
I’ve spoken with @PhillyMayor and my team is in communication with @PhillyPD, @PhilaOEM, and @PhillyFireDept. We are offering all Commonwealth resources as they respond to the small private plane crash in Northeast Philly.
We’ll continue to provide updates as more information…
Shapiro later arrived at the scene and mentioned that 45 Pennsylvania State Police troopers were assisting at the scene as well as workers from the Department of Environmental Protection and PennDot.
"For as awful as that aviation disaster was tonight, we also saw the best of Philly," Shapiro said. "We saw neighbor helping neighbor. We saw Pennsylvanians looking out for one another. ... I want to especially thank and salute Philly fire and Philly police, who did an extraordinary job this evening."
According to its website, Medjet is a global air medical transport and travel security membership program for individuals, families, groups and corporations.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation into the crash with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Additional support is being provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The plane crash occurred less than 48 hours after an American Airlines passenger plane collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C. Both the plane and the helicopter plummeted into the Potomac River, killing all 67 people on board both vessels.
