The company operating the medical ambulance jet that crashed on Friday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while transporting a pediatric patient was operating another aircraft in a fatal crash that happened more than a year ago.
On Friday, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the company operating the planes in both incidents, said a Learjet 55 crashed while departing from Northeast Philadelphia Airport around 6:30 p.m. The incident happened on a street near Roosevelt Mall.
Four crew members and two passengers – a pediatric patient and her mother – were on the plane in the Philadelphia crash that was headed to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, the company said. They were all Mexican nationals.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the number of crew members and passengers. The crew members included a pilot, a copilot, a physician and a paramedic.
PHILADELPHIA PLANE TRAGEDY: MEDICAL AMBULANCE TRANSPORTING MEDICAL PATIENT CRASHES, EXPLODING NEAR HOMES
Smoke rises as emergency personnel operate at the site of a plane crash in Philadelphia, Friday. (Reuters/Rachel Wisniewski)
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance operated a Learjet 35A in November 2023 that was involved in a deadly crash in southern Mexico.
In that incident, the aircraft crashed on landing at Cuernavaca Airport in Morelos, Mexico, on Nov. 1, 2023, after departing from Toluca International Airport in the city of Toluca. There were five crewmembers with no passengers on board and no survivors, the AirMed&Rescue website reported at the time.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said no names in the Philadelphia crash on Friday will be released until family members have been notified.
“Our immediate concern is for the patient’s family, our personnel, their families and other victims that may have been hurt on the ground,” the company said in a statement.
STAFFING AT REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT AIR CONTROL TOWER WAS ‘NOT NORMAL’ ON NIGHT OF COLLISION: FAA
Debris from an aircraft lies on the ground at the site of a plane crash in Philadelphia on Friday. (Reuters/Rachel Wisniewski)
The plane was scheduled to fly from Philadelphia to Tijuana International Airport, with one technical stop in Springfield, Missouri, for fuel, Air Ambulance spokesperson Shai Gold told Fox News.
The patient was in the U.S. for lifesaving medical treatment and was released to go home after treatment. The FAA confirmed the plane was on its way to Missouri at the time of the crash.
“The plane was loaded with jet fuel that’s highly flammable,” Gold said. “There is no indication that anybody survived, and by the debris field, I would be pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise.”
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said at a news conference Friday night that she was unable to confirm the number of fatalities.
A senior Philadelphia fire official told Fox News the fires caused by the crash are “now under control.” The official said when the plane went down, it sprayed jet fuel, soaking nearby row homes, which went up in flames.
First responders work the scene after what witnesses say was a plane crash in Philadelphia, Friday. (Matt Rourke/AP)
Six houses and six cars caught on fire, the official said.
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The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation and the FAA will assist. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Philadelphia said it was also on site investigating.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that he had briefed President Donald Trump and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
