In a second air tragedy this week, an air ambulance carrying a child crashed into a US neighbourhood on Friday evening (31 January).
The small medical transport plane was carrying four crew members, a child patient and her mother.
About 30 seconds after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, it crashed into several buildings and erupted in a fireball, setting several homes and vehicles on fire.
“At this time we cannot confirm any survivors,” said the Mexico-based air ambulance company Jet Rescue Air Ambulance that operated the plane.
The Mexican government said all those on board the jet were Mexican nationals.
The jet crashed last night. (Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
The young patient had been treated in Philadelphia for a life-threatening condition and was being flown back home to Mexico, according to Jet Rescue Air Ambulance spokesperson Shai Gold. The flight was set to stop in Springfield, Missouri before reaching its final destination in Tijuana.
“When an incident like this happens, it’s shocking and surprising,” Gold said. “All of the aircraft are maintained, not a penny is spared because we know our mission is so critical.”
At a news conference late last night, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said officials expect fatalities in this ‘awful aviation disaster’ and added: “We know that there will be loss.”
Mayor Cherelle Parker said information on fatalities was not immediately available but that a number of homes and vehicles had been damaged.
“This is still an active scene under investigation,” she said.
Homes and vehicles were set ablaze. (Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
Emergency crews had rushed to the scene as witnesses described a chaotic scene with injured people and structures engulfed in flames.
A doorbell camera captured footage of the plane falling from the sky and exploding in a fireball as it hit the ground of the residential neighbourhood.
“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.
What has Donald Trump said about the crash?
President Donald Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social it was ‘so sad’ to see the crash.
“More innocent souls lost,” he said. “Our people are totally engaged.”
The Philadelphia crash comes just two days after the US’ deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet collided mid-air with an army helicopter over Washington, DC. All 60 passengers and four crew on the plane and the three soldiers on the chopper died in the crash.
A harrowing audio recording captures an air traffic controller’s reaction to the recent American Airlines plane crash.
On Wednesday (29 January) evening, the passenger jet collided with a military helicopter mid-air over Washington DC, leading both aircraft to plunge into the Potomac River with all 64 passengers and crew and the three soldiers all confirmed dead.
This devastating incident took place as the plane was descending to land on Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, with investigators yet to name a cause.
A controller can be heard asking (via CNN): “PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?” in a recording of the final communication between the Black Hawk helicopter and ATC.
According to a radio traffic feed on LiveATC.net (which broadcasts ATC communications), a helicopter pilot then responded that he did and would use ‘visual separation’. This means he would keep an eye on the aircraft, the Bombardier CRJ700, and make sure he remained a safe distance away.
The controller requested: “PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ.” But just moments later, the helicopter and incoming plane collided.
Control tower at Ronald Reagan Airport. (Getty Stock)
Harrowingly, an audible gasp can be heard from the control tower with sounds of concern in the background clear.
“Tower, did you see that?” someone on the channel asks, seemingly another aircraft referencing the crash.
And another person can be heard saying: “Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three.”
Soon after the incident, all takeoffs and landings were halted at the Ronald Reagan airport with emergency teams rushing to the scene.
“I believe they’re going to close the airport for an indefinite amount of time. I might suggest heading back to the gate,” a controller was heard telling a plane on the ground (via The New York Times).
Investigators are working to determine the cause. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
In another audio recording, an official can reportedly be heard saying: “The accident happened in the river. Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river.”
NBC also reported what a controller said after witnessing the incident.
“It was probably out in the middle of the river. Um, I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river,” they said.
“But It was a CR-J and a helicopter that hit, I would say a half-mile of the approach.”
Featured Image Credit: Earth Cam
Topics: American Airlines , US News
You can only imagine what is going through the minds of pilots who are flying a plane which is plummeting towards the Atlantic Ocean in free fall – but chilling recordings from the cockpit can help us fill in the blanks.
Harrowing audio captured the final conversations between captain Marc Dubois, 58, and his two co-pilots David Robert, 37, and Pierre-Cédric Bonin, 32, as they realised their doomed fate on Air France Flight 447.
All 228 onboard – made up of 12 crew members and 216 passengers – were killed when the Airbus A330-203 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 June, 2009.
The fear of those flying the plane is evident in the voices that are heard in the final recordings, which were taken as they began to nosedive towards the icy water beneath them – as the jet disappeared without authorities being alerted.
(Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Days later, debris from the AirFrance jet was found floating among the waves, sparking a two-year search of the depths of the sea totalling up to costs of £27million.
One of the findings search crews made were the black box recorders, which held key information about what had occurred in the air that resulted in 288 people losing their lives.
These electronic recording devices revealed that the plane’s speed sensors – known as pitot tubes – had become blocked and iced up as the jet tried to make its way to Paris through a storm.
(PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP via Getty Images)
Due to this, the plane’s systems were producing faulty data for the flight.
The autopilot on the Airbus A330-203 was disabled, while the pilots were left trying to decipher confusing data regarding their speed and altitude, which eventually saw them decide to resume manual piloting.
But Dubois, Robert and Bonin were following the incorrect navigation data while battling through bad weather.
When the plane entered an aerodynamic stall, the trio mistakenly pointed the nose of the jet upwards instead of down.
This resulted in the Air France flight starting to tumble from the sky as the pilots had a panicked conversation.
(MAURICIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images)
One began: “We’ve lost our speeds!”
“I don’t know what’s happening,” another concerned voice said.
Bonin then was later heard exclaiming: “Let’s go! Pull up, pull up, pull up!”
“F***, we’re going to crash! It’s not true! But what’s happening?” Robert screamed.
It’s unclear who spoke next, but they seemed to know their fate as someone said: “F***, we’re dead.”
The 205-tonne plane had plummeted 11,500metres from the sky in just four minutes and 24 seconds, tragically killing everyone on board.
All that was left was the terrified cries of the pilots for investigators to help piece what had happened together.
In 2023, a court in Paris ruled that Air France and Airbus were not guilty of manslaughter for the deaths of those on board.
Featured Image Credit: Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images/MAURICIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images
A simulation has shown a pilot’s last words before flight AF447 crashed in 2009.
On 1 June, 2009, 12 crew members and 216 passengers were killed when an Air France flight crashed while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The aircraft pictured in January 2009. (JEREMY MELLOUL/AFP via Getty Images)
The flight was travelling through a storm over the Atlantic when it disappeared off the radar.
In just four minutes and 24 seconds, the aircraft fell 11,500 metres out of the sky.
It’s though that the plane’s speed sensors may have iced up, which triggered autopilot to turn off.
Although debris was spotted in the ocean following the crash, it took almost two years for the black box flight data to be recovered.
In the audio, Marc Dubois, 58, David Robert, 37, and Pierre-Cédric Bonin, 32, could be heard voicing their fears in the final recordings taken just before the plane crashed into the water.
Debris was found following the incident. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images)
“We’ve lost our speeds,” one of the pilots could be heard saying as indicators mistakenly showed a loss of altitude.
“I don’t know what’s happening.”
The automatic pilot disconnected, leaving the three pilots on board in charge.
The crew held up the plane’s nose, but this sent it into an aerodynamic stall. Dubois had been asleep at the time, and the co-pilots didn’t recognise the stall and therefore didn’t move to recover the mistake.
By the time he woke up, Dubois was unable to act quickly enough to save the plane.
Following the recordings, a simulation was created, showing what is believed to be the aircraft’s harrowing final moments.
As the plane began to descend towards the ocean, Bonin can be heard saying: “Let’s go! Pull up, pull up, pull up.”
“F***, we’re going to crash! It’s not true! But what’s happening?” Robert said.
It’s unclear who spoke next, but the final recording reveals one person saying: “F***, we’re dead.”
French air investigations authority, the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) said that the crew in the cockpit had not responded correctly to the problem, and had not had the training needed to manually fly the plane at high altitude once the autopilot had turned off.
While Air France and Airbus denied accusations of negligence, Air France claimed that the alarms confused the pilots in charge.
Last year, a court in Paris ruled that Air France and Airbus were not guilty of manslaughter for the deaths of those on board.
David Koubbi, who was representing the families of a number of passengers, said the ruling was ‘incomprehensible’.
“It is a signal that you can kill 228 people in an air crash and nobody is at fault,” he said.
“The families that I represent are devastated, and this has prevented them from mourning their loved ones.”
From the moment Google Earth went live in 2005, pretty much every single person who has ever been on the internet has used it to search up their own home.
Bit of a strange species us humans, aren’t we?
Most people get a glimpse at how the previous owners had their property, or what the new occupants have done with their old place – but one man got a lot more than he bargained for when browsing his former neighbourhood on Google Earth.
William Moldt had been reported missing from Lantana, Florida, in November 1997 after he never returned from a night of clubbing – leaving his family devastated.
The girlfriend of the 40-year-old, who ‘did not appear intoxicated’ when he left the venue, was expecting him home and he had last contacted her at around 9.30pm on that fateful evening to inform her that he would be arriving soon.
Little did she know, it was the last time she would ever speak to William.
An investigation into the US man’s disappearance was launched, however, the trail soon went cold as detectives had little leads to work with.
More than two decades had gone by before the case was blown wide open by a bloke looking at his old neighbourhood.
William Moldt was missing for 22 years before the chilling discovery was made (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)
The man had been taking a look on Google Earth when he noticed something seemed amiss with the satellite imagery he was peering at.
After zooming in on the lake situated close to his previous home, he noticed what looked like a car.
He then informed a resident in the area who then used a drone to confirm his suspicions.
All these years, a white car had been submerged in the water behind a row of houses in Moon Bay Circle, Wellington – which contained the body of William.
After alerting authorities, police arrived on 28 August, 2019, to investigate the strange discovery, before they hauled the ‘heavily calcified’ white sedan out of the lake and found the missing man’s skeletal remains inside.
A week later, it was confirmed that the remains belonged to William.
The man who found the car told local media at the time: “Never did I believe there would be a 22-year-old dead body.”
A man looking at his old home on Google Earth noticed the submerged car more than two decades later (Google Earth)
A report by the Charley Project, an online database of cold cases in the US, said the ‘vehicle had plainly [been] visible on a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007, but apparently no-one had noticed it until 2019’.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office shared their theories about what had happened to William in 2019 with the BBC, saying that the most likely explanation was that he had lost control of his car and driven into the lake.
Despite this, they said the investigation into his disappearance yielded ‘no evidence of that occurring’ until recently, when a ‘shift in the water made the car visible’.
Police spokeswoman Therese Barbera said it was still difficult to determine exactly what had happened to William, even now.
“You can’t determine what happened that many years ago, what transpired,” she added.
“All we know is that he went missing off the face of the Earth, and now he’s been discovered.”
