Medical jet crashes near Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia in fiery scene

A medical jet with six people on board — including a pediatric patient — crashed Friday evening near the Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia, erupting into a massive fireball, scattering debris throughout the streets, and setting multiple homes and cars ablaze in a devastating scene.

In a briefing Friday night, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said there was no official number yet for how many people may have been killed or injured from the crash, but asked for the city’s prayers, and called the situation “all hands on deck.”

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Droves of first responders filled the area near Bustleton and Cottman Avenues — a mix of commercial and residential, surrounded by strip shopping centers and abutting neighborhoods of rowhouses. Thick smoke hung in the air as police ushered onlookers away from the scene, and the mall was evacuated. The mayor urged residents in the immediate area to stay inside and not interfere with the ongoing response and investigation.

Six patients were being treated at Temple University Hospital’s Jeanes Campus in the Northeast, according to a spokesperson. Three of the patients were treated and released, and another three remained hospitalized in fair condition, the spokesperson said.

The Learjet 55 departed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport just after 6 p.m. and crashed moments later near the mall, flight logs show. The aircraft was en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, the FAA said. Flight logs show the plane was in the air for only a minute before it crashed. At the time of the crash, light rain and fog were in progress with visibilities lowered to 5 to 7 miles, said Jon Porter, chief meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, a medical flight company, posted on LinkedIn that a Learjet 55 owned by the company, with the designation XA-UCI, crashed after taking off from Philadelphia. The company wrote that four crew members and two passengers, a pediatric patient and their escort, were on the plane.

Jet Rescue said it could not confirm that anyone had survived the crash, and that names of those on board the flight would not be released until family members had been notified.

Shai Gold, a spokesperson for the company, said that the patient being transported on the plane was a child who came to Philadelphia from Mexico for medical care. She was discharged after completing her course of care, Gold said, and was being escorted back to Mexico by her mother.

The aircraft was registered in Mexico, Gold said, and crewed by a pilot, copilot, flight physician, and paramedic — the standard medical team on Jet Rescue flights.

”It’s a tragedy,” Gold said.

A representative from Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia said they were “heartbroken” to confirm one of their patients was aboard the flight. The child had received care at Shriner’s and was returning home with her mother on “a contracted air ambulance,” the hospital said.

Federal, state, and local first responders swarmed the scene Friday, and an investigative team from the National Transportation Safety Board was present, Parker said. Gov. Josh Shapiro said that 45 troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police, as well as workers from PennDot and the Department of Environmental Protection, among others, were assisting in Northeast Philadelphia. Shapiro said he had spoken to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and that a team from the Federal Aviation Administration had been dispatched to Philadelphia.

“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.”

The explosion rocked the surrounding neighborhood, and firefighters battled blazes in six homes on the 7200 block of Calvert Street as a result of the plane crash, according to Mike Bresnan, head of the union that represents firefighters and paramedics.

Bresnan, president of the International Brotherhood of Fire Fighters Local 22, said he wasn’t aware of any casualties from inside those homes, saying “our members got everybody out pretty quick.”

He said first responders relayed to him that the plane appeared to hit the street, that fuel or fire spread to three or four homes on the end of Calvert Street, and that the blaze jumped to several other rowhouses from there. One roof collapsed, he said, which he described as “indicative of a fuel-based fire that burned very hot and quick.”

Bresnan said firefighters also battled between six and eight car fires.

”This city is lucky it hit where it hit,” he said. “If it would have hit in the middle of the block of rowhouses, we could have lost a whole block or more. When you get jet fuel, that stuff is hard to put out.”

Shelter was available at Samuel Fels High School at 5500 Langdon St., Parker said.

State Rep. Jared Solomon, who represents the Northeast, told CNN Friday that the plane had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport and that something went wrong as the aircraft attempted to make an emergency landing, possibly on Roosevelt Boulevard.

The plane fell from the sky at rapid speed, crashing into Cottman Avenue amid rush-hour traffic and creating an explosion that engulfed multiple cars, businesses, and homes in flames.

Police were still working to determine how many of those cars — now burnt shells — were occupied. The flames from the burning jet fuel were so strong, the heat could be felt over a block away, said a law enforcement source at the scene who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

First responders encountered an apocalyptic scene. A large crater was left in the middle of the burning road, and human remains were scattered over the area.

Aniyah White, 16, said she was on the sidewalk on Roosevelt Boulevard with a friend when they looked up and saw a plane spiraling in the sky. It was on fire, she said, and rapidly descending.

”It was coming down on fire,” she said. “Then boom. Explosion everywhere.”

”The sky lit up,” she said.

The crash in Philadelphia comes two days after a commercial plane collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington D.C., killing 67 people. On Truth Social, President Donald Trump wrote: “So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged.”

Ryan Tian, 23, of Delaware County, witnessed a huge explosion as he was getting dinner from a food truck located at a parking lot at Cottman and Bustleton.

Tian said he “saw the sky turning orange” and then a “massive fireball.”

”I thought we were getting attacked by something,” said Tian, who took several photos of the fireball that appeared to rise from a residential block before turning back as people ran away in panic.

Staff writers Abraham Gutman, Michelle Myers, Dylan Purcell, and Anthony R. Wood contributed to this article.