President Donald Trump has responded following a second air disaster in as many days following the crash of a Lear 55 medical jet into a Philadelphia neighborhood.
“So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged. First Responders are already being given credit for doing a great job. More to follow. God Bless you all,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page shortly after the incident Friday night.
Fox News reported that the aircraft was operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance and had just departed from a northeast Philadelphia airport shortly before it crashed. Fox also obtained chilling audio from air traffic control in the final moments before impact.
The audio, obtained by Fox News Digital, was recorded just before the plane took off. In the recording, operators can be heard urgently attempting to make contact with the plane before it crashed.
“What’s going on down there?” one air traffic controller can be heard saying.
“We have a lost aircraft. We’re not exactly sure what happened. So, we’re trying to figure it out,” replies another air traffic controller. “The field is going to be closed so no inbounds-outbounds.” The plane departed the airport around 6:55 pm EDT.
All passengers and crew — two pilots, a physician, a paramedic, a pediatric passenger, and a mother– were all Mexican nationals, Fox reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that six people were aboard the plane, which was en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri.
Shai Gold, a spokesperson for Air Ambulance, told Fox News Digital that the patient on board was a Mexican national receiving life-saving medical treatment in the U.S. Upon completing her treatment, she was discharged and preparing to return home.
Experienced pilots who saw video of the meteoric crash of the plane speculated that a takeoff stall was the cause.
“The plane was out of the crew’s control. It was not controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). May have been a mechanical malfunction of the stabilizer, elevator, trim or even a load shift rearward within the cabin,” John Anderson, a retired pilot from Philadelphia, told Fox News.
He further speculated that if “it was a medical flight with a stretcher on board and the stretcher was not properly secured, it may have rolled rearward.”
“This would cause the nose to raise and stall the wing. In that case, the nose will drop with the angle in the video,” he said. “Because it was right after takeoff and the initial climb, I would say it was likely aswing stall. There could be a number of factors that would cause a stall. Could have been a runaway trim, malfunctioning stabilizer.”
Friday night’s tragedy occurred just 48 hours after a fatal collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport, resulting in the deaths of 67 people.
Reports said that the jet was transporting a young girl who had come to the U.S. for life-saving treatment and was on her way home.
“The plane was loaded with jet fuel that’s highly flammable,” Gold told Fox News. “There is no indication that anybody survived, and by the debris field, I would be pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise.”
The jet fuel sprayed several nearby row houses and vehicles, catching them on fire, reports noted.
“[There was] a very seasoned pilot [and a] very seasoned co-pilot,” Gold said. “They know the job, and they do it many times. We fly 600 to 700 missions a year. We are very busy, very active, and we keep top-notch staff.”
He said the company, while based in Mexico, is licensed there and in Florida.