Philadelphia plane crash: ‘What the hell just happened?’: Philadelphia plane crash’s horrific video captures man on fire running for his life

A small medical plane carrying six people crashed near a shopping center in northeast Philadelphia on Friday night. There were apparently no survivors in the incident which triggered a large fireball into the air that engulfed vehicles and homes in flames, authorities told New York Times. The Learjet 55 was transporting a young female patient from Philadelphia, where she had been treated for a medical emergency, to her home in Mexico, said Shai Gold, a spokesperson for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which owns the plane. She was accompanied by an escort, and there were four crew members on board, he said. The patient had been treated at Shriners Children’s hospital in Philadelphia and was traveling with her mother, the hospital’s spokesperson, Mel Bower, said in a statement.

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Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said that all six people on the plane were Mexican nationals. At least six people injured from the crash were taken to Temple Health, said Jennifer Reardon, a spokesperson for the hospital. Three were released after treatment, and the other three remained hospitalized, she said, without elaborating on whether they had been on the plane or on the ground. Mayor Cherelle Parker, speaking at a news conference, confirmed that several homes and vehicles had sustained significant damage. “This is still an active scene under investigation,” she said.

Philadelphia plane crash video emerges

Several videos of the horrific Philadelphia plane crash have emerged online, sending shock waves. The crash occurred just 30 seconds after the Learjet 55 took off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

A shocking video from the spot has gone viral on social media, where a man can be seen running out of a huge fire from the crash site. “What the hell is happening? Why are so many planes crashing? Are these all just coincidences?”, a user commented on the video.

“This is horrific. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy,” another commented. “HORRIFYING. I pray from the depths of my heart that they were able to get immediate treatment and survive this tragedy. What a heartbreaking scene,” the third one said.

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The horrifying moment was captured when the jet plunged from the sky in a streak of white before exploding upon impact near Roosevelt Mall, a busy shopping centre. The viral footage shows an enormous fireball followed by thick black smoke billowing into the sky.

“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 homeowner whose doorbell camera recorded the incident. The aircraft vanished from radar at an altitude of 1,600 feet just after taking off at 6.06 pm. It was en route to Springfield, Missouri, and registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.

Eyewitnesses describe chaos, horror

Scenes of chaos and destruction were described by eyewitnesses. The video taken after the incident showed debris scattered across the intersection, vehicles burnt beyond recognition and houses severely damaged. Emergency responders rushed to the scene, with police and fire trucks flooding the area and cordoning off a wide perimeter around the crash site.

Michael Schiavone, 37, who lives in the nearby Mayfair neighbourhood, said his house shook from the explosion. “It felt like a mini earthquake. When I checked my security camera, it looked like a missile was coming down. There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.

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Killiom Pontes, 38, a manager of a cellphone store less than a mile from the crash site, said that the impact had caused the windows of the business to shake.

“‘What the hell just happened?'” he recalled saying to himself. “At first, I thought it was an earthquake, but then we saw the big boom.”

Pontes said he drove to the scene, which he described as in a busy commercial area. He started streaming live video of flames and debris.

“I saw a big hole in the ground,” he said. “I was in shock how much debris there was.”

Authorities in Philadelphia said they had closed several roads near the shopping center indefinitely, warning drivers to expect delays on surrounding roads.

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The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the matter. Members of both agencies were on their way to the scene Friday night, officials said.

President Donald Trump said in a post on social media Friday night that his administration was tracking the developments. “So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” he wrote. “More innocent souls lost.”

This crash comes just two days after another tragic air disaster in the US. On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided midair with an Army helicopter in Washington, DC, killing everyone on board both aircraft.