At least 7 dead, 19 injured after Philadelphia plane crash, authorities say

Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the Philadelphia air ambulance crash for Saturday, Feb. 1. For the latest news, view our story for Sunday, Feb. 2.

PHILADELPHIA ? A Medevac jet that plummeted from the sky and crashed in a fiery explosion into a busy neighborhood on Friday evening killed at least seven people, injured 19 others and has left a path of carnage.

As investigators combed the area for evidence on Saturday, residents were still reeling from the sight of the crash. People gathered in the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood from dawn to mid-afternoon to see what remained of Friday's nightmare. They stood yards away from a debris field of broken plane pieces and singed cars to get a glimpse of the wreckage.

A huge crater was blown out of the city street where a Learjet 55 carrying six Mexican nationals nosedived into the ground at almost 300 mph, according to initial reports. There were two chunks of the plane’s charred fuselage in the street. Several cars caught in the blast during the evening rush rested at extreme angles ? one was so thoroughly incinerated that only a blackened metal skeleton remained.

Many described the moment the plane hit as akin to a war zone. Andre Boldin said the jet sounded like a missile sputtering overhead. Nearby, Andre Gary said he believed the world was ending as he watched it fall like a meteor from the sky.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” said Bill Vitelli, whose windows rattled when the jet crashed. "We’ll know what happened, eventually, but why do these things happen? Maybe only God can explain it.”

Deaths and injuries reported

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker on Saturday morning confirmed that all six people on the plane died, along with one person who was in their car when the medical flight struck the ground, hurtling debris far and wide. She and other officials warned that the count of injured and dead could rise as recovery efforts continue.

She thanked first responders and said crews and investigators worked through the night and will continue to work to learn what happened.

"We will find a cause for this tragedy," she said.

The six people on board the jet were from Mexico, including a young girl ? who had been treated at Shriners Children's Philadelphia, her mother, a medical crew, and the pilots, said Jet Rescue Air Ambulance Spokesperson Shai Gold.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed the deaths and offered condolences to the families impacted in a Saturday morning post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the jet departed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport and crashed around 6:30 p.m. Friday as it was headed to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri. The plane crashed near the Roosevelt Mall at Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, a busy hub with dozens of businesses and hundreds of homes.

The crash in Philadelphia comes in the wake of the midair collision in Washington D.C. that killed 67 people. The collision of an Army helicopter and American Airlines plane in the nation's capital was the deadliest U.S. passenger air crash in over two decades.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are investigating the crash site, and the FAA said it will assist with the probe.

Search for missing cockpit recorder

It took "a slight right turn, followed by a slight left turn and then a steep descent," leading to its crash, NTSB investigator Ralph Hicks said in a press briefing Saturday.

"This was a high-impact crash and the plane is highly fragmented, ????????????NTSB chairman Jennifer Homendy said at the briefing.

As a result, there is a lot of debris, much of which investigators are looking to collect. The collection effort could take weeks, Homendy said.

While investigators have found the plane's two engines, they have yet to find the cockpit voice recorder. She urged anyone who found debris to email the NTSB ([email protected]).

About the cockpit recorder, which may not be intact, Homendy said, "hopefully, once we can find it … we can take that back to our lab and evaluate it."

Finding the recorder is "critical, so we can hear what's happening in the cockpit," she said. "However, it doesn't mean that we can't continue our investigation and complete it (without the voice recorder). We can. It's just a piece of our investigation that gives us more information."

Politicians respond to the disaster

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro thanked federal officials for help investigating the crash and stressed a message of unity in the face of tragedy.

"This is not just a group of emergency response professionals working together at the state, local and federal level, this is neighbors working together to look out for one another," he said Saturday morning.

President Donald Trump on Friday night applauded first responders and offered his condolences to the victims in a Truth Social post.

"So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost," Trump wrote. "Our people are totally engaged. First Responders are already being given credit for doing a great job. More to follow. God Bless you all."

Philadelphia air traffic control tried to reach doomed plane

Air traffic control communications reveal the moments when controllers tried to reach the doomed jet.

The Medevac pilot did not mention any issues over the radio, but the air traffic control tower caught on that something was wrong.

“Medevac med service zero-five-six, northeast tower, are you on frequency?” a controller asks almost four minutes after the jet's takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport in an audio file downloaded from liveatc.net.

Minutes later another voice came on: What's going on down there?"

"We have a lost aircraft," the operator responds.

Read more.

Crews inspect crash site

Adam Thiel, managing director of the City of Philadelphia, said crews are conducting house-to-house operations around the area of the crash to find any hidden damage. It could be days, he said, before the full extent of the tragedy is known.

He estimated the area of impact to be roughly four to six blocks wide. But debris also spread into areas farther away.

Philadelphia fire officials said five homes were set ablaze, but they had since been extinguished. Officials did not say how many cars were impacted.

What is a Medevac jet? 

Short for “medical evacuation,” Medevac flights are undertaken by aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment, including ventilators, defibrillators, and monitoring devices along with caregivers to provide inflight care for patients being transported to a medical facility, according to aviation news site Simple Flying.

Staffed by specially trained medical personnel, the aircraft are "essentially flying ambulances," according to Fly REVA, an international air ambulance provider with bases of operation in Arizona, Florida, New York and Puerto Rico.

Helicopters can be used as Medevac aircraft, but fixed-wing planes such as the Learjet are ideal for use because they can take off and land on shorter airfields. Large cargo doors allow for loading and unloading of a stretcher, the site says.

Medical crew on a Medevac can include intensive care physicians, flight doctors and flight nurses, notes Medical Air Service Worldwide, an air ambulance provider with offices in New York and London.

Equipment on an Medevac flight may include a satellite phone, an intensive care unit, respirator, defibrillator, blood gas analyzer and oxygen tanks, the company says.

Pilots may have additional medical training including infection control and patient loading and unloading, according to MedicTests, an evaluation site.

– Mike Snider

Child aboard plane was in Philadelphia for treatment

Jet Rescue was contracted to transport the child from Philadelphia to Tijuana, Mexico, Gold said. Gold confirmed a third-party charitable organization paid for the flight, but he couldn’t divulge the name of the organization.

“Our heart goes out to the families,” Gold said. “It’s really an irreplaceable loss.”

Shriner's Hospital Philadelphia said they had been treating the girl and celebrated her with a sendoff Friday before the flight, according to an interview a hospital representative gave to CBS3 in Philadelphia.

The company previously experienced a fatal crash in 2023 in Mexico where five crew members were lost, Gold said.

The LearJet 55 is one of the largest available and Jet Rescue is among the few air ambulance companies that use them because they are expensive, but an “exceptionally reliable jet.” Jet Rescue flies 600 to 700 flights a year around the world and that the number of trips the LearJet 55 took the five days before the crash is not unusual, Gold said.

He added that the company training for its crew exceeds the industry standard, the airplanes in its fleet are “well-maintained” and safety is taken extremely seriously, calling each flight a “holy mission.”

“Every flight is like it’s the first flight we ever did,” Gold said. “IF a red light goes on in the cockpit, the plane is grounded no matter where it is.”

'Help us, help us'

Philadelphia resident Michael Hitchner was sitting in a parked car when the plane crashed nearby. He said he used his shirt to try to stop the bleeding from a child's head who was injured from debris that fell through a car windshield.

"The parents were shouting, 'Help us, help us, help us!'" Hitchner said. He added that he and his wife saw other carnage as well. "My wife saw a disembodied foot. I saw a disembodied arm. I saw medical supplies scattered everywhere," Hitchner said.

"It was a very shocking and disturbing experience, seeing everything that happened. I got home. I threw up twice."

– Jim Walsh

What does the National Transportation Safety Board do?

The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating civil transportation accidents in the U.S. involving aircraft, railways, roads and on the water, according to the NTSB website.

The agency, headed by a five-member board, is currently investigating the midair collision of an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday.

How many planes have crashed in 2025?

So far in the U.S. there have been eight airplane crashes – including bird strikes and single craft accidents – based on information from the Aviation Safety Network.

Prior to the crash of a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday, there had been no fatalities in the U.S. this year.

That crash left 67 dead. With the fatalities in the Philadelphia crash, there's now been 74 air crash-related deaths in the U.S. in 2025.

'No donations' needed, mayor says

Mayor Parker urged those looking for ways to help victims of the tragedy to pray for the City of Philadelphia and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She stressed that "no donations are needed at this time," during a press conference on Saturday.

She said officials were working on creating "formal, actionable ways" for people to assist with the tragedy.

Details about plane emerge

According to the online flight-tracking service Flight Aware, the red and white plane is a 43-year-old Learjet 55 registered to Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which has operations in Miami and Mexico.

In recent days, the plane had passed through airports in Mexico, Haiti, Florida and Arizona. On the company's website, the plane is featured in a video explaining how Jet Rescue can extract patients worldwide and is shown in the air as the video touts the company's "impeccable safety record."

USA TODAY has reached out to Jet Rescue for comment.

– Trevor Hughes

Contributing: Trevor Hughes and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY; Jim Walsh, USA TODAY Network; Bucks County Courier Times; Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At least 7 dead, 19 injured after Philadelphia plane crash