Captured in disturbing video footage, fiery debris fell on a terrified child who was at a Dunkin’ Donuts with his father during the Pennsylvania plane crash.
The father, who chose to remain anonymous, shared with DailyMail.com, “We heard a loud boom, came out, and everything looked destroyed. Nobody knew what was going on.”
During a tragic incident in Philadelphia, an air ambulance carrying six individuals, including a young girl, crashed in a residential area, exploding into a massive fireball after less than a minute of flight.
The horrific crash caused chaotic scenes on the ground, including at a nearby Dunkin’ where a father and his young son were at the time of the catastrophe.
After hearing a deafening roar, the pair walked out to a complete apocalyptic-like scene with no idea as to what just happened.
‘We came out and it didn’t look anything like it did when we went in,’ the father said.
The nightmare just outside the doors was captured on shocking video footage, which showed small fires scattered around the parking lot and debris saturating every inch of the ground.
Blood-curdling screams can be heard from the young child, who appeared to be in absolute terror as he looked around at the aftermath.
‘Lets go! Let’s go!’ the child can be heard screaming in tears.
The father told DailyMail.com that his son was completely shaken up. ‘He didn’t really know what was going on. Nobody really knew.’
Car horns were heard blaring for the entirety of the video as vehicles parked just outside the Dunkin’ were littered with ash and debris.
Another man with two children were captured on video as they attempted to step over the sporadic flames on the ground to get into their own car.
The sky above was seen illuminated with a bright-orange glow as flames were seemingly roaring in the background of every angle.
‘The fire went pretty far,’ the father said. ‘One direction of the road was completely on fire, the other direction wasn’t. We got out of there as soon as we could.’
Around 6.07pm, the plane, which was a Learjet 55, had just left the airstrip of the Northeast Philadelphia Airport to begin its travels to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri.
Tragedy struck less than five minutes later when the plane lost control. Officials received their first call at 6.12pm informing them of the catastrophe.
Flightradar data says the plane had reached an altitude of 1,650 feet before reporting a vertical drop of -11,008 fpm.
Officials in the city said that police and fire crews are on the scene, with nearby roads being closed.
The aftermath of the catastrophe was also captured on harrowing drone footage, which showed the chaotic scenes on the ground.
In the one-minute video shared to X, the busy street lined with homes and businesses was completely engulfed in massive, bright-orange flames.
Thick, dark plumes of smoke were seen saturating the sky above as dozens of fires continued to ravage the road below.
Multiple homes facing the road were seen swallowed in flames as the bright lights of responding emergency vehicles blocked off the area on both sides.
Businesses near the Roosevelt Mall were also captured ablaze as well as several cars parked along the street.
The lit-up debris was seen scattered throughout the entirety of the neighborhood.
According to CBS, the debris reached as far away as Tyson Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.
The fiery disaster was also captured on doorbell footage, which showed two unsuspecting people leaving their home.
Just seconds into the clip, a white orb is seen picking up speed before a bright light filled the sky – sending the witnesses into a bout of full-fledged terror.
The people in the video were heard letting out gut-wrenching screams as they rushed back inside to shield themselves from the disastrous wreck.
The blaring explosion, which sounded like shattering glass, was followed by an orange tint filling the sky above.
United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy confirmed that there had been six people onboard the jet.
A pilot, a copilot, a doctor, a paramedic, a pediatric patient and the patient’s mother were all passengers of the aircraft, according to NBC.
The pediatric patient was a girl who had just received care for a life-threatening illness in the United States and was returning to Tijuana, Mexico.
‘All I can say is, the patient was sponsored by a third-partner charity to undergo life-saving treatment in the US,’ Shai Gold, a spokesman for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, told NBC.
‘She did her course of care. She was going home,’ he added. ‘She fought quite a lot to survive, and unfortunately, this tragedy on the way home.’
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance does not believe that anyone on the jet had survived the impact.
The cause of the accident is still unclear but described as extremely unusual, especially if the plane, which is considered a ‘high performance’ jet, was cleared to takeoff.
‘It is very reliable,’ Todd Sheridan Yeary, a former FAA air traffic controller, told NBC. ‘It is very unusual to see what we’ve just witnessed.’
‘Something happened rather catastrophically after the aircraft lifted off,’ he said. ‘We don’t know exactly what that is.’
The crash comes just days after another catastrophic air disaster, in which a passenger jet and military helicopter collided off Washington’s Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people – the deadliest aviation accident in the United States in nearly 25 years.
