Philadelphia: Medical emergency plane crash claims 6 lives

A small medical transport jet carrying six people including a young paediatric patient, her mother and four crew members crashed on Friday night in a Northeast Philadelphia neighbourhood. Officials said that the crash resulted in an explosion, setting several houses on fire.  

The crash resulted in all the six people onboard losing their lives while several people on the ground were also injured, confirmed Philadelphia police.  

In an official statement Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said that they could not confirm any survivors and added that no names of those onboard will be released until the family members are notified about the same.  

Reportedly, the plane a Learjet 55, had just departed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport and was bound for Springfield, Missouri but soon after the take-off it went down. The reason for the crash has not been discovered yet, said the Federal Aviation Administration.  

The plane crashed into a neighbourhood last night near the Roosevelt Mall after leaving the airstrip around 6:07 pm and the first emergency calls from the small jet went out around five minutes later at 6:12 pm and the crash occurred minutes after that, added the police.  

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has assured that the state will provide full support in response to the tragedy. Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the crash. 

Plane Crash captured in dashcam footage 

The United States suffered its second plane crash in days after an aircraft went down, killing all six people. The dashcam footage captured the plane plummeting before exploding into a fireball in a residential area.  

The video is now making rounds on social media with witnesses describing it as ‘earthquakish’. Another person noted, “We thought we had been bombed.” 

This follows a Washington DC crash on Thursday which killed 67 people in the deadliest US aviation tragedy in decades.  

Young paediatric girl was on her way back to home after lifesaving treatment 

The police further noted that the paediatric patient was a girl from Mexico who arrived in the country to receive treatment at the Shriners Children’s Hospital. The hospital staff said that her life saving treatment had ended, and she was on her way to home with her mother when the crash occurred.  

A spokesperson for the hospital, Mel Bower said that it is extremely hard and difficult to hear this loss and those who were involved directly in the child’s care were very aware that she going to be travelling home and there had actually been a sendoff at the hospital for her today.