A doorbell camera captured dramatic footage of the aircraft plummeting from the sky in a white streak before erupting into a massive fireball upon impact in a residential neighborhood near a shopping mall and a major roadway.
“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,” said Jim Quinn, the owner of the doorbell camera.
The crash occurred less than three miles (4.8 km) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, a facility primarily serving business jets and charter flights.
Flight Details and Investigation
The aircraft, a Learjet 55, vanished from radar shortly after departing the airport at 6:06 p.m., reaching an altitude of 1,600 feet (487 meters). It was headed for Springfield, Missouri, and was registered to Med Jets, according to flight tracking data from Flight Aware.
This tragedy follows Wednesday night’s devastating midair collision in Washington, D.C., between an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members and a U.S. Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. That accident, the deadliest in the U.S. in nearly 25 years, left no survivors.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stated that all “Commonwealth resources are available to assist in response efforts in Northeast Philly.”
Impact on the Community
The jet crashed at a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, where first responders blocked traffic and bystanders gathered in disbelief. Philadelphia’s emergency management office confirmed road closures in the affected area.
One witness video captured the immediate aftermath—debris scattered across the intersection, a fiery glow illuminating the skyline, and a towering plume of black smoke rising as sirens blared.
Michael Schiavone, 37, who was at his home in the nearby Mayfair neighborhood, described the explosion as so powerful that it shook his house. “It felt like a mini earthquake. When I checked my home security footage, it looked like a missile was coming down,” he said.
Owner and Response
The aircraft’s owner, Jet Rescue, is a Mexico-based company specializing in global air ambulance services. The company previously transported baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and was actively involved in critical patient transport during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A request for comment was left with Jet Rescue’s U.S. headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.
The FAA confirmed that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation into the crash.
