By MICHAEL SISAK and MATT ROURKE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A medical transport jet crashed in Philadelphia on Friday about 30 seconds after taking off, setting homes ablaze and unleashing a fireball into the night sky. Two people were on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he is offering all “Commonwealth resources as they respond to the small private plane crash in Northeast Philly.”
The crash comes two days after the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. An American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in midair Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors in that crash.
The plane appeared to be a Learjet 55 that quickly disappeared from radar after takeoff. It was en route to Springfield, Missouri, and registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
The crash happened less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights. Photos taken at the crash site appear to show residential homes on fire.
Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting at his home in Mayfair, a nearby neighborhood, on Friday 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 footage, he said it looked like a missile was coming down. “There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.
Flight data showed a 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 (487 meters).
The plane crashed in a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping center where first responders were blocking traffic and onlookers crowded onto a street corner in the residential neighborhood of Rhawnhurst. Philadelphia’s emergency management office said that roads are closed in the area.
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 beyond the intersection as a plume of black smoke quickly rose into the sky and sirens blared.
Jim Quinn, 56, lives about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from the crash site. He was leaving his home Friday evening when he heard the crash. “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.”
Quinn then went inside and looked at his doorbell camera footage, which captured a streak of white diving down from the sky, followed by what he described as a fireball. Quinn said that the blast shook houses in the residential neighborhood, and that it was congested with traffic that was redirected from the crash site.
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.
A message seeking comment was left with Jet Rescue’s U.S. headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.
The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. The NTSB, which investigates air crashes, said it was gathering information about the crash.
Associated Press writers Rio Yamat from Las Vegas, Hallie Golden from Seattle, and Josh Cornfield from New York contributed to this report.