it leads to this fireball, yeah, you can imagine it is going to rattle a lot of nerves. not just in philadelphia, but around the country about what in the world is going on with aviation? i mean, if you look at this thing separate from what happened at reagan national or just approaching reagan national a couple of nights ago, this appears to be kind of this sole incident where it happened, you know, it was kind of incapsulated on board on this plane, whatever happened, whatever went wrong, and it's, you know, it is totally separate and different from d.c. >> brian: trace, we'll see you in a couple hours. going to hand off to jesse watters. looking at the plane explosion right here in northeast, philadelphia. jesse will take it the rest of the way. we're still trying to unwind this. keep it here on fox for the latest on the philly plane crash. jesse. ♪

>> jesse: fox news alert, a tragedy in philadelphia. emergency crews were on the scene after a small plane jet 55 crashed near a mall in northeast philadelphia. the plane struck the ground just an hour and a half ago. this was the moment it happened. watch. >> what the [bleep]? >> a plane has crashed right off the boulevard. it's on fire, it's out of control. it looks like a side street. called police and fire. there are lots of police and fire as far as i can see. smoke in the sky over the shopping plaza. >> jesse: reports say this was a medical evacuation jet headed to an airport in springfield, missouri. this is basically a hospital with wings for emergency transportation to top surgical centers across the country. we are hearing conflicting reports about how many people

were on board. the faa says two people were on board. local fox reporting says there was six. two doctors, to pilots, one patient and family member. there is still a lot we don't know but we can only pray for the families and anybody involved. are fox news correspondent alexis mcadams joins me now. what are you hearing about how this plane went down? >> jessie, we're trying to figure out exactly what happened. we know what happened quick out there in northeast philadelphia. crews boarded the plane just minutes before it went down and a ring doorbell camera video captured the thing exploding. it ignited in midair. we heard from officials that this plane took off, they believe it was a medical plane that was heading to missouri. it takes off on a normal flight path, they said the weather was okay. within 30 seconds, the thing is on fire. a small plane crashing their cat coming right down. we're told it was onto a shopping mall. you know philadelphia better than i do, this thing's like it was basically a bunch of stores

over there in the northeast side. you park and a massive parking lot and that's for some of the witnesses were saying this plane came right down. just about 3 miles away from the airport. primarily has business jets, charter flights, you name it. but this was supposedly two doctors that were on board as well as those two pilots. the different numbers are coming and so the faa says at least two pilots were on board but that means they were basically trying to figure this out. we know sean duffy, the transportation secretary will be out there with officials trying to figure this thing out. at the beginning that's how it goes with breaking news, as you know. they give you the lowest number 1st and then go from there. they are working to figure it out as they are probably in contact with family members. one of the reports i was reading that i thought was interesting was this guy says he was sitting at his home in mayfair when he heard what he said was a loud bang as an entire house started shaking. that's how powerful this thing was. we say its a small aircraft but it is still an aircraft and possibly full of fuel because it had just taken off. he said it felt like an

earthquake as he goes and checks the security camera footage wondering what is going on out there in philly, he says it looks like a missile coming down. a large explosion. he said he thought he was under attack for a second. imagine that. plus this comes off the heels, 48 hours ago we had a horrible plane crash that happened in the washington, d.c., area so people were already on edge. it crashed into a busy intersection near roosevelt mall it is an outdoor shopping mall and we will work to get the latest details. jesse? >> jesse: thank you so much. the former pentagon official in army combat veteran, alex joins me now. so alex, when you see a jet goes down this fast, this hard right after take off, what does that tell you? >> usually indicates there is a problem with lift on the way up. that is coming straight down so it is not even attempting to make an emergency landing. if you have like a landing your issue or something like that. something was catastrophically wrong with the aircraft for it to go down like that. >> jesse: so it was a mechanical issue? >> it certainly could have been. engine failure is a possibility

as well. it's unclear from the video other than it was coming straight down. >> jesse: so they weren't trying to land the plane, it looks like this was mayday, almost accelerating into the ground. >> reports for that it took off from a regional airport and that it was an air ambulance which probably would have been full of fuel since it was after takeoff. that would explain the fire that you see there. >> jesse: what kind of mechanical issue could it be? this is a very elite aircraft. it is obviously just going through a check down before takeoff. was there possible outside interference? how could they miss a mechanical issue like that? >> it is unclear at this time just from the video we saw of it coming down a downward angle. it lost lift at some point so weather it was engines or whatnot, it was efficient thrust to get off the hound and into the air so when you see accidents like this, a lot of times it is on takeoff and landing, that is the most interest part of the flight as opposed to the steady piece many get when they hit the 10,000 feet portion.

>> jesse: so you are assuming there probably engine failure almost immediately. to engines failed and it came down like a bat out of hell. there was nothing to save it. once you lose an engine, there is no way out. >> i mean if both engines fail and there's no way to restart it and you can't coast to come down and land, it is possible it will come straight down. that's what we saw here. it's unclear if the wings or flaps or controls that could have been electrical, could have been engine failure, any combination thereof. >> jesse: what kind of tests do they do on the tarmac before takeoff of a plane like this? this is an emergency medical draft. it is very expensive. it was going all the way across the country, halfway to missouri. what could possibly have gone wrong if they weren't able to check it out before took off? >> that's a great question. there's a standard maintenance check that you go through before preflight and then based on

hours of the aircraft there certain maintenance procedures that need to be performed. that's done on a regular basis. it is unclear if something was missed in the maintenance me -- process or there is catastrophic failure or even something brought down, where there's a bird strike in the engine, who knows. >> jesse: so you say there could have been outside interference, could have been birds, could have been everything. what else besides birds could have interfered in a flight like this? >> at the altitude it was at, it is unlikely but depending on how high it was in the climb, it could have been a drone or something. it is unlikely when you start to reach those far-off categories there but most likely something wrong with the aircraft but it is possible something could have hit it from the outside. >> jesse: nothing could happen to the pilots. you're saying this is most likely catastrophic engine failure. it couldn't have been a medical emergency from one of the pilots or copilots to bring that down, could it? >> are news reports say there were two folks on the plane so it's unlikely that both of them would have suffered a medical emergency at the same time. probably one still would have

been competent enough to fly the aircraft at that point. so usually it speaks to an aircraft issue since it wasn't a single person flying it. >> jesse: and it couldn't have been sabotage. if this plane is going to missouri to a medical center for emergency surgery, no one would be bringing down a plane like that. >> precisely. that would not be a target phrase terrorist organization, as well of the category. >> jesse: and this is in something or someone could interfere with a plane's flight from the ground, right? >> no, that's highly unusual. you could interfere with some of the electronics, it really would not affect a flight to that degree to produce that kind of outcome. >> jesse: thank you so much for your expertise, we really appreciate it. >> you to, thank you. >> jesse: a pilot and international captain sherry walker. sherry, what are your instincts telling you about this tragic incident? >> well, it is known as being quite a handful to fly. it has two rear mounted engines and this had 1400 plus pounds of fuel on board. it appears that happened

somewhere after 1600 feet which would be your normal reduction in power r at which point, perhaps at that power reduction, the engine catastrophically failed. maybe through a turbine blade. because they are rear mounted, it could have possibly affected detail flight controls. otherwise, looking at the video with it on fire as it spun into the ground, i suppose since it was an air ambulance, we don't know what equipment was on board but there could have possibly been an oxygen tank or some other equipment issue that caused the catastrophic explosion. >> jesse: so if you do notice the plane is on fire on the way down, what would that indicate? >> as i said, there is either -- because of the containment of the fire, it didn't look like it was spread to the wings, it looked like it was contained in the aft portion. my gut is that it was probably an engine fire. >> jesse: got it.

and that was not able to be checked before takeoff? how would that happen right after takeoff? this never happens in the united states of america, very rare. >> engine fires happen, they do happen and they are usually able to be contained. however,, if it was a catastrophic failure and the engine came apart and severed the flight control, that is where i would see detail mounted engine situation. and a transport category jet or a wing mounted aircraft. very rarely do they sling the blades but even then, if you lose one side, you get a symmetrical thrust with some time, we can shut the engine down and return to landing. and the tell mounted center line thrust back it's a bit more difficult. >> jesse: okay. and when you see the explosion on the ground, we are talking about a massive amount of jet fuel here. these are we're hearing reports

of multiple row homes being on fire. is this a blaze that could last a really long time? >> jet fuel today is typically kerosene. the coven thereof, it's not like and after gas which has a high explosive rate and a quick burn. it is a bit thicker. it may take a little bit of time to get it extinguished. but i don't foresee it -- it is more about the combustion materials there on the ground. >> jesse: you did mention the rarity of this. you said that it does happen when there is engine failure or there's a fire and it is contained. but something like this where it is uncontained and it is a catastrophic failure and it leads to a spectacular crash, how rare is that in the united states of america? >> i don't know specific statistics but it is pretty

rare. a majority of airliners are not rear mounted engines. the learjet is known for being a little more challenging to fly anyway and the close proximity of the two engines to each other, if one catastrophically failed, and it does happen on occasion, it could have infiltrated the other engine or as i said, the rear flight controls which is what it looks like. >> jesse: and the jet is registered in mexico. what would that indicate? just ownership? >> aircraft registration all over the world, just like ships or registered in the bahamas. i'm not familiar with the company. they could have owned it in mexico, leased it to a u.s. company, it could be here on work. it doesn't really mean anything. it would still undergo the same inspections as a u.s. aircraft. >> jesse: got it, think you so much. let's get into our local fox affiliate. getting local coverage on the ground, listen.

>> it was a medical flight. >> we're the same thing. >> dr. in patients on board. it is heartbreaking. >> it is heartbreaking for anybody, any time. but certainly from what we heard , there were two doctors, a patient and a friend. as well as a pilot and crew. for any tragedy like this, a terrific and terrible. >> what is the area like as far as getting around? your own foot so you're free to move just not be on the barricades but even trafficwise? >> traffic looks like it's moving a little better now but it was backed up before and obviously here uncommon, i guess they are starting where they have kept diverting traffic farther away. so that nobody can get even close at all. >> one last thing so i can let you get out of the rain, why did you decide to come down here as far as you could walk? >> we were shopping and going to grab something to eat. we were inside one of the stores at the time and then when we came out, that's when we saw the melee on fire and smoke. and then just the red light blue

light, one after the other. police, fireman all racing down. common sense tells me to not get too close to what appears to be an explosion. that i can tell you. >> why did you guys decide to get out here right now? >> just to be a part of the community with anybody who needs anything. a hug, just to be around r. >> well said, think you so much. and that is the good part of this that we're talking about. is much as there are a lot of people out here walking around and taking pictures, there was certainly people who were looking to see if they could help in anyway. and again, we are not close exactly to where the heart of the scene is. so it is not likely that people will be able to get down and they don't even know what they can do. as you heard them say, they feel like they want to be a part of a community here. it is heartbreaking. we talk about what type of flight it is, the size of plane. and he made a good point. weather it was a two-seater, these are people who are a part

of someone's family. who have been in a situation tonight which, as far as we know, does not appear to be a good ending periods. >> jesse: that was a local philadelphia coverage there. you heard one of the women saying i am just out here in the community, ready to give someone a hug. it is the city of brotherly love. the transportation secretary sean duffy just confirmed six people were on board the plane that crashed in northeast philly. rich is a local radio host and he joins me now. rich, what are hearing on the ground? >> jessie, i was actually live on the air when i started getting text messages from my friends in the philadelphia police department telling me that a plane had crashed at the roosevelt mall in the northeast. and of course obviously the entire show just changed trying to get information. since then i've been on the phone talk to cops and first responders. this is such a nightmare. as you know jesse, philadelphia, the northeast is a very

congested area, this is not centre city philadelphia were big buildings are. there's a lot of homes, a lot of businesses. i got called into the show tonight, that's is jim he normally goes to where parts of the explosions happened. so there was a ring video doorbell that captain -- captured the massive explosion, is the perfect mix of row homes and businesses and you are very close to the mall. so there is a 2-mile span here of heavily congested areas right off of a massive highway which is interstate 95, one of the busiest highways in america and not far from the bridge which is a very heavily traveled bridge. so obviously everyone is on edge tonight. just trying to understand how this could possibly happen in america. and to your point, how could this happen twice in one week? >> jesse: psychologically it is just such a blow. obviously you talk of the family members and the people involved. but just for the country to experience this almost back-to-back, that has to make people feel so uneasy, so sick to their stomachs and just so

sad that this is happening to our people and in such a civilized country. it doesn't make any sense. there are so many unanswered questions about this. the timing of these things, it is almost impossible to think that this could happen within 48 hours of each other. >> yes, and jesse it is a friday night. just a people understand, people are going out to dinner, there's a movie theater not far away. people going out shopping and coming home from work. everybody is out tonight, doing something. so people are calling my show tonight and they were in the area when it happened. and they are just thinking immediately, is america under attack? was that a rocket, was that a missile, was that a bomb? what could possibly happen here tonight? and my sources in the police department say it could be the jet fuel mixed with the oxygen on board since there is a medical transport that must have resulted in a massive fireball that we see. but my god, looking at that, all

you can think of is god bless the northeast, god bless philadelphia and everyone there because it looked like we were under attack. and for that first 30, 40 minutes of my radio show tonight, when this was happening, nobody knew anything. we could not understand what was going on. i just kept trying to reach for the audience. my cop friends were telling me this was a small plane crash. don't forget we have philadelphia international airport 20 minutes down the road. so there was so much confusion everywhere, so much anxiety. especially coming off what happened in d.c. so many unanswered questions and watch the videos of the plane coming down so quickly, descending at thousands of feet per second. into a residential neighborhood. everybody immediately just said, how can this possibly happen keep in the united states of america? and immediately, i don't think anybody who would have looked at this and said is it possible we could be under attack? i don't like anyone who at that thought is crazy, i don't think anyone look at that video inside could this be a bomb? could this be a missile? because honestly that is truly

100% what it looks like and that is exactly whatever one was saying to me tonight as they called the show. >> jesse: you have a week out until the super bowl, this philadelphia, the northeast, at great irish catholic community there, very into athletics, love their birds. and just great patriots there. and as you describe, tell the audience what this neighborhood is like. this is a densely populated neighborhood, this is a working-class neighborhood. really good people here. >> great people here. this is salt of the earth kind of people in this neighborhood. people have lived here for generations. it is a hardworking, blue-collar part of philadelphia. this is not the part of the city, like i said, where the big high-rises are, that big buildings or other wealthy people live. these are row homes. a lot of irish, italian, polish people. people that grew up in philadelphia and like i said, the grandparents grew up in the northeast of philadelphia. people have incredible pride for this neighborhood, they love their neighborhood and they love

their churches and their schools. and they love the birds and everybody was going out tonight, feeling really excited about the weekend and next weekend and then you have this tragedy happen -- and it is kay close-knit community. people in the northeast know each other. they know the cops. they know the first responders right now i have to say, god bless the philadelphia police department, the fire department and the ems people who are running towards this massive explosion tonight and trying to get people back. one of the key things was very early on when this happened, they started pushing the media back further and further and further to try to get away from this and they kept moving everybody back even further because the fires just kept spreading. as it would catch on to more row homes and more cars and there was a man on fire. a horrific heartbreaking video of that. so for these first responders, i know we say it all the time, on a night like tonight, god bless them for what they are doing to keep this city safe and these residents. we don't know how many people on

the ground could have been killed here tonight. we know there were six people on board the plane. but this is a residential and business area of philadelphia. we don't know if there are any casualties on the ground so we just have to pray tonight and hope for the best. but i would not rule that out because there is just too many people. it is a heavily populated area and it is an area where people are going out to dinner, going to catch a movie, going to see friends and family, coming home from work. leaving to get the 95 to go and see other friends in parts of the city or jersey or parts of philadelphia. and thank god that at least the first responders were able to get there so quickly tonight. cops were on the scene within minutes and they gave the command. any cop who is free, it down here right now and start helping out and they all did. they all rushed to the scene to do their best to lend a hand and to help out tonight. >> jesse: you're going to see philadelphia's finest out there doing what we do. and as you said, tragically you

cannot rule out casualties on the ground and we're just praying for everybody in the northeast and all of the cops and firefighters, all of the first responders. thank you so much. we really appreciate it. >> thank you jesse. >> jesse: fox news at night host, trace gallagher joins me now. trace, what are you learning about this plane and the reason it went down? >> a couple things real quick. just to go over what rich was asking about people on the ground. we do now know that there are several reports that people in the ground were injured. in fact saying there are several injuries on the ground. so that gives you an idea of how powerful this was when it hit the intersection. it was in the middle of the intersection, didn't necessarily hit the mall, the roosevelt mall which has stores like macy's and restaurants around there. it hit an intersection and the reports are that there were several injuries on the ground and row houses on fire. it is important to also note that the weather, just we have clarity on this, the weather at

the time of take off at 6:06, tempter was 49 degrees, light rain with some fog and wind gusts of 30 miles an hour. there is nothing to indicate any trouble there. if you look now at the flight data, it shows that at 6:06 the plane took off and it disappeared from radar 30 seconds later, which is an indication that sometime between 25 and 30 seconds, something catastrophic happened because as you look at the video, there appeared to be some type of flames. weather it was an engine or inside the plane, it's unclear. but before it hit the ground, there were some kinds of flames. we have two doctors, to pilots, a patient and a family member. we keep hearing small plane and it is a learjet 55. just so people know, it is 43 feet wide, 55 feet long. it is not that small, difficult to fly. this is also a plane owned by jet rescue. people won't rescue that, a

little bit of context, the company is based in mexico. it flew baseball hall of famer david ortiz to boston after he was shot in the dominican republic back in what he 19. and of course the same company involved in transport in ??? critically ill with covid-19. one fascinating thing is that fox 29 never reporting in philadelphia that because it was a medical transport plane, this is interesting, that the philadelphia police are telling a reporter there outside a mcdonald's near roosevelt boulevard near where the plane crashed, there are pieces of the jet everywhere. but what is fascinating is that a quarter of a mile away, jesse, there is a medical oxygen tank that was found. and the speculation has been from pilots and other experts, maybe something happened. maybe the configuration of this plane was, as you said at the top of your show, it was configured to be a flying ambulance and there were oxygen tanks and the possibility that one of those oxygen tanks may

have leaked or exploded or something like that is now a very real possibility. and if you look at this, it was going to springfield, branson, missouri, to be specific. that is the airport. and we don't know exactly how much fuel it had on but they can carry up to 1400 pounds. so this thing is a flying bond, especially just taking off. that's why when you see the picture in the middle of your screen there and you see the explosion, this thing could be loaded down with fuel and very dangerous and very lethal to the buildings and the people around the area of the crash scene. and of course sean duffy,'s you said, has now confirmed that there were in fact six people on board. several injuries on the ground and the investigation is not even beginning. >> jesse: and when they find the black box, i'm sure they will learn a lot more. you mention this is like a jet ambulance. so if there is an emergency situation with a high-value individual, a vip, you mentioned

the hall of fame baseball player, this things wheels up and is going to the best surgeon in the country. it doesn't matter where they are , whether it's boston, missouri, los angeles. this thing is ready to go and it is what you called a flying bombing. explained to me how, if you have all of these oxygen tanks and we don't know whether gasses or anything like that they had on the flight, because it is a medically equipped flight, how could that have sparked an incident with the engine? >> it is unclear that it is the engine. it is unclear that this was an engine. i mean there is a good possibility he was an engine, there's a good possibility it had one. the question is, what is the black box tape going to show? because that is the data recorders which would record the conversation inside the cockpit. because we have heard nothing. zero about any contact with the tower between the time this thing went up and then it disappeared from radar. unless they gave it a handoff at

some point in 15, 20 seconds. but after that, after the explosion, after lost air capacity and started twisting towards the ground, there is no word that we have heard yet that there was any communication with the tower at all. on indication that the pilots were doing what they are supposed to be doing which is 288, navigate and then to communicate. and the first thing you want to do is to try to gain control of the aircraft before you start telling people were sending in a mayday of some sort. so i think the basic capacity here for investigators when they get on scene to find out was this an engine or was this something catastrophic that happened on board the actual plane that had nothing to do with the engines but it either may be blue a hole in there and they lost pressure and something else happened and then they lost the ability to fly this plane? so it is really early and really too soon to be able to point at engines and point at anything else because there are so many

variables. especially in a medical jet like this that can have various equipment onboard that you normally would not have a board your regular learjet airplane. >> jesse: it is a unique aircraft. and like you said, it loses the ability to be seen on radar. now why does it all of a sudden disappear from radar? is that because it's transponder exploded in the explosion? or what would cause it to go off radar? >> it can be a combination of things. it either fell so fast -- you look at the video there and this may have happened, the explosion may have happened in 29 seconds. they are saying it went off radar at 30 seconds. it took off at 6:06 and at 60 6:30 this thing went off radar which is an indication that the explosion may have happened and i heard you talking about this earlier, it was at 1600 feet

when this thing apparently started losing altitude. so it was at 1600 feet, marked on radar and then something happened. but at 6:30 seconds it went off radar. is not saying that this didn't happen at 26 seconds or 23 seconds and by the time it fell out of radar reach, that was the 30 seconds it might have been on the ground at that point. so it is really unclear exactly why it went off radar and exactly at what point in the fall it went off the radar. that is something air traffic controllers would have to tell us. was it a transponder issue? it's unlikely because they would still likely have a grasp. they would still have a sweep of it. so it is a pretty good indication that it was at a fairly low altitude when it disappeared from the radar at that point in time. unless it exploded the transponder and then the plane just went dark. so there's a lot of questions yet to be answered. >> jesse: they will have their hands full between this and the

previous crash. think it so much trace, we watch for you later. our medical contributor, dr. nicole safire joins me now. dr. sapphire, explain to the audience how it is basically an ambulance with wings. >> jessie, first of all, echoing your guest a little bit ago when they were talking about the people on the ground, i also have family in the philadelphia area and those smaller homes and the italian area of south philly and i was the first thing i thought about was how much damage did this due to the ground? so we will still be hearing about these injuries and hopefully no more fatalities as they evolve. but reports come out that this was a medical ambulance. the initial announcement was that there were two people on board. when i first heard that i was thinking well, this is probably some sort of organ transplant which happens all the time. weather it is via automobile, helicopter or an airplane where you are taking an organ from one city or one state to the next four organ transplantation.

but now what we're hearing as has been confirmed by secretary duffy is that there were actually six people on board, to pilots, to doctors, a patient any patient's family member. so that made me think of what was going on here. because you have this medically equipped learjet i think it was, going from northeast philadelphia, which is home to the university of penn which is an incredible health care system known for a plethora of things, going to branson, missouri, which is -- it's a great level 1 trauma center and also is a transplant center. but i'm not necessarily clear on what could be in branson, missouri, that they didn't actually have a northeast philadelphia. so my brain is turning a little bit as to why this flight was going there. and when you look at these air ambulances, they can be really functioning just like an ambulance that you see on the ground. they can be equipped to handle medical emergencies, keeping patients stable with iv fluids and oxygen and really a tiny o.r. if need be.

one of the things that i heard from trace, he said that there was an oxygen tank that was found far from the scene. so with oxygen tanks, you are able to fly with what is called condensed oxygen. safe you need oxygen and you're traveling commercially, you can have that in your carry-on. it is essentially where you take oxygen and made it into its liquid state. and this is safe to travel with. but if you now have it compressed, that big oxygen tanks, that in itself is not dangerous that it is flammable, but it can be -- it can act as an oxidizer which means that if there is some sort of fire in the engine or any sort of spark within the plane, that can cause it to burn quicker, faster and may account for why you saw such an explosion as we are hearing from reports on the ground. >> jesse: wow. so the compressed oxygen tanks can turbocharge a flame or any sort of flame incident and

basically just turn this thing into a fireball in the sky. explained to me -- you said that they can possibly be going to a trauma center but also a place where they do transplant surgery. so you would take somebody that was in need of an emergency transplant halfway across the country? >> no, that is why when the initial report from the faa news came out, it said there were two people on board. that's what i initially thought this was probably a transport flight. because what you see in those is a pilot, some of who's in charge of driving a vehicle, weather it is a car or a plane or helicopter, then you have a transport officer. someone who's in charge of that organ. you don't necessarily transfer the patients in that sense. as i said, northeast philadelphia but also branson, missouri, are transplant centers. so you wouldn't have to be flying a patient either way because they have transplant teams in both of these areas. he would only be flying the organ.

so once we started to get more reports confirmed by secretary duffy that there were six people on board, including two doctors and a patient, all of a sudden it didn't necessarily make sense to me that this was a transplant flight. so what could it be? it could be that someone who had been from missouri was receiving care in pennsylvania and now they are just going back home. and they have a team of doctors that is traveling with them, maybe they are even concierge doctors. it's possible the patient himself or herself was not stable enough to fly or be transported without their medical team. but again, i'm not sure why they would be going from philadelphia to branson, missouri. that is still a big? for me as to weather they were stable enough to travel and they just want to do have doctors with them out of comfort because they like that team and that team is known to them? or was there a medically necessary reason that doctors were on board that flight and if so, why was the patient being transferred from philadelphia to branson? but these are not significant

questions, these are just as a medical professional that i have myself, as to what was the impetus, why did this flight occur? >> jesse: it is very insightful and definitely explains a lot to people that aren't really involved in the medical industry. dr. nicole safire, thank you for joining "jesse watters primetime". >> of course. >> jesse: an eyewitness saw the plane go down in philadelphia and describe the terror and carnage on the streets. >> you to see everybody saying get down, it down! when everyone says get down, we all get down. but i just see the plane is getting lower and lower. it nipped the house. when it did that it had a couple cars. boom! to the plaza, to the dunkin' donuts, i have never seen a fire like that today in my life. i have never seen nothing like that. we got dead bodies over there, cards burnt up. >> jesse: are fox news correspondent alexis mcadams joins me now. alexis, what you have? >> i just got up the phone with some senior fire officials who tell me the story really has

been displays. you can see it in a video, we're talking about multiple fires that have popped up across the street there. that is because the senior fire officials in the area tell me that when the plane went down, it sprayed that jet fuel we were talking about everywhere. so not just all over those cars in the entire parking lot around the mall, but all near those row homes. they specifically said six homes and at least six cars lit on fire, exploding there. and these people thought they

were under attack. because if you look at it, you can see them go down this big fireball in the middle of the street and then the debris starts flying all over the place. people were driving down the street heading to wherever they were going on a friday night and they see this thing coming down, they didn't know what was going on. they had to evacuate at least three of the row homes. i was told it was kind of like the end the lit on fire first. pieces of this jet are all over the place. something we have been talking about that is important to point out because if you don't know tons about airplanes and the sizes, we're saying this is a small private jet. it is still pretty big so we are saying it carries a lot of jet fuel. you can have seven or eight people on one of these jets. right now we know that there were six people on board according to secretary sean duffy. the new transportation secretary who is now dealing with two plane crashes within 48 hours here and the country. people have a lot of questions about what is going on. the plane was going to springfield airport in missouri. it was in the air for 30 seconds before this thing went into basically a fireball and came down. but again, this is a three-alarm fire. as we try to figure out why the plane went down, those questions are going to take a while from the faa but i think people in the ground are now dealing with all of this havoc. i mean it looks like explosions all over the place. i think the fires near the row homes are under control but it wasn't just the row homes, it was the cars in the parking lot and those are full of fuel as well. so that's why things are popping

and causing small fires everywhere. so the fire department is working on it. >> jesse: it looks like a war zone out there in the northeast philadelphia. you said that they were able to evacuate people from these row homes that were on fire? >> yes. the senior fire official told me they had crews out there as quickly as they could. so the philadelphia fire department, they had some ladders out there and said at least 15 different units came out there. i know the mayor is also going to be speaking as well. >> jesse: let's go to the mayor philadelphia right now listen in. >> we will go through some basic facts about what we know for certain right now. and aircraft went down in the vicinity of roosevelt mall. this occurred shortly after 6:00 p.m. this evening. as of right now, we have no reports on the number of fatalities. so right now we're just asking

for prayers for any and everyone who may have been affected. we do want to note that several dwellings and vehicles were impacted. so what are we asking you to do for us right now, philadelphia? we are urging you to please stay away from the scene. if you see debris, call 911. do not touch anything. this is still an active seen under investigation. i'm proud to note that all of our federal and state partners are either en route here or on the ground with us right now. we did see some neighbors who live in the surrounding community. just stay in your home. again, it is still an active seen and is under investigation. this is only the first of many briefings i'm sure will come on this evening. and of course when daylight comes, when we have more effects

and information to share with you. but i do want to say a special thank you right now, again, to all of our federal and state partners and our amazing first responders right here in the city of philadelphia. our fire, our ems, are police department. they have been here working vigourously to ensure that we get this perimeter and the surrounding area locked off to ensure that we make public safety and health our number 1 priority. so we do not have any further information to share at this time. i have spoken to our governor josh shapiro. he is en route. i have spoken to our u.s. senator , john fetterman. other federal officials. and everyone, all hands on deck, that is where we are right now. thank you so very much and we will have more information to report in the near future.

>> jesse: so that was the mayor of philadelphia freezing the local firefighters, local police and local emt. it is an active seen, everything is under investigation warning local residents to pleas stay away because it is very dangerous. a lot of fire is still not put out. and there could be fatalities that we don't even know about. and unfortunately, we just have news of the jet company and they are saying it was a pediatric patient. with an escort who were there on the plane and they cannot confirm any survivors. so someone under 18, probably some person a lot younger than 18 that was on that plane. either coming from surgery back to missouri where the other way around to philly. very sad.

aviation attorney and aerospace engineer, arthur rosenberg joins us now. all right arthur, what you got? >> thank you for having me. i watched this video several times on what happens. and if you look very carefully against,, first there was a massive explosion on board of the plane. and we talk about that and a second about what the cause of that was. the plane then stopped any forward movement and basically almost went vertical and fed out, it was in an airplane anymore. it was basically a bomb with 1000 gallons of fuel on board which weighs about 6000 pounds which crashed into the area. so to me, we have been involved in a most every major airplane crash for a very long time. this is very reminiscent of the concorde crash 25 years ago. they took off, there is a perforation of a fuel tank and

not going to get into the why. the plane did fly for a while but ultimately the structure succumbed and crashed to the ground. in this instance, i don't think there's any question based on the film that i saw, the videos that we watched, that there was a massive explosion on board this plane. this learjet 55 which weighs 25,000 pounds, can fly 2000 miles and holds 1000 gallons of fuel. it is a hot rod in the sky, it flies with the fastest jet engines of today, it had six people on board. so what could cause that kind of explosion? someone talked about oxygen tanks on board, their various forms of oxygen tanks. they have liquid oxygen on board, you can have solid components inside a tank which makes oxygen generators like you have on commercial airliners. there clearly was a massive

explosion which then followed an imminent burn which was jet fuel burning in the air which was this catastrophic failure, stopping the forward movement in the plane r we know the plane was in the air for about 40 seconds from take off to about 1600 feet until the massive explosion, the forward movement stops and then we have a fireball into the streets of north philly. so to me, i don't think there's any question that there was a massive explosion on board. what caused that, i know of no engine explosion and i have been doing this a very long time. one that could cause that kind of explosion. a jet engine failure, they will throw a compressor blade back a turbine blade back at that end of the plane. there are no gas tanks slowly

underneath the center section of the plane. something massive happened on board and i guess the first suspect would be the oxygen tanks. this was basically a med d-back carrying two patients, to doctors, it's basically a flying ambulance as you see with rescue trucks -- trucks, their fill of oxygen tanks of all sorts. we don't know with a medical emergency there was. obviously it is serious, to doctors were on board. the so we aren't talking about a minor injury. so again, the key question is what could cause this kind of massive explosion in the air. the only thing that comes to mind to me would be some oxygen failure. oxygen tank failure. >> jesse: that make a lot of sense but we will find out once do a full investigation, think you so much for your analysis. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> jesse: we have a retired

philadelphia pilot joining me now on the phone. does that make sense to you? does it look like an engine explosion? looking like something happened with the oxygen tanks and then that caused on incredible flame to go throughout and just like this thing up and said it right down to the ground? >> hello jesse, thank you for having me. that is a good question. it is hard to say at this point because it was dark. i flew out of northeast philly for many years. actually i was a medevac earlier in my career. the question is when you take off, you have your landing legs and your taxi legs, you get up to 18,000 feet. so the airplane would have taken off with light sonar. with the video we saw, it came down at the trajectory angle that could have been a stall, a wing stall or could have been a mechanical failure in the tail

switch. so what we saw was a streak of lights. whether or not that was a fire or weather or not that was the lights flickering because the quality of the video course -- because it was a door camera and was off in the distance. so the question is, was it on fire before it hit the ground? or were the lights just going through the clouds? >> jesse: many people may be misinterpreting it, it could have been, as you said, some sort of failure, not a fire and the explosion was what we saw on the ground. there was no explosion in error. it is hard to see with these types of camerawork. >> exactly. the street that we saw the video, i initially thought that it was just the lighting of the airplane going in and out and the poor quality of the video. so my first recollection there was that it was not on fire and it came down.

but then again, it was nighttime and the only thing you can see are the illuminations, weatherby fire or the lighting. now it was right after takeoff. more often than not, after takeoff it is wing stall. the airplane came down at such an angle it was not what we call see fit. controlled flight into terrain. which means it was out of control. if an airplane flies long hits the side of a mountain, it was under control and hit the mountain. this was deftly not fit. it was at such an angle that it had to have come down abruptly. more than likely it was a wing stall. and airplane came off the ground, everything was fine. if the crew may have gone disoriented, spatial disorientation, it may have begun to turn or a shift of the load. that could have caused the tail to go down in the nose to come up which causes a wing stall.

at that point the nose go straight into the ground. it could have been a mechanical issue or a runaway trim which would trim the nose straight up in the air and eventually it would stall. so generally speaking, when something like this happens very close to the ground right at the takeoff, it is more often not a wing stall. is very tragic. and also, not all, but the rear jet is an entry-level jet. so the crew could have been low on experience. and when they went into the clouds, that could have gone disoriented. i'm not saying all crews of that jet or inexperienced, there are some very good and experienced crews in that aircraft. however,, it is also an entry-level jet. so that may be a factor. >> jesse: we are not ruling anything out, there's a lot of factors that could have been in place. and people will find answers as

the days go on, think you so much for coming to our show. here's a statement just released by the jet company. it says today, jet rescue air ambulance experienced a crash after takeoff from philadelphia. there were four crew members on board and two passengers. a pediatric patient and an escort. at this time, we cannot confirm any survivors. trace gallagher joins me now. it's just so sad. >> yes, it is. and i'm reading the same statement you are from jet rescue air ambulance. they are saying today at approximately 19:25 eastern time, of course the towers sing a different time, they say it happened at 19:06 so 6 minutes after six is when this thing took off. and sometime within 30 seconds after that it went off radar. it's fascinating when you listen to different stories. you decide on the past five or r rosenberg, fantastic pilot and aviation guy and you had john anderson, a fantastic pilot.

and you have two different stories. were arthur rosenberg is convinced this thing was on exploding oxygen tank or something catastrophic happened on board. it is a great theory. it is very valued and it could be exactly what happened. and then you have john anderson saying no, i think it is simple that this was a stall, in out-of-control stall that went into a spin. he could be absolutely right and that is the whole question. it is really hard to tell and we have slowed this down. it is really hard to tell. john anderson makes a great point. whether this plains actually -- or that jet is actually on fire when it comes down or weather that is just lighting and the time of day and maybe the last flickers of daylight coming through some kind of object coming through the clouds, it is just unclear. we do know that it was at 1600 feet. that was the max altitude that it got to and we do not know exactly when it got there. was it 20 seconds? was it 25 seconds?

all we know is that it went off radar at 30 seconds. so the rest of this is very unclear. but we are kind of learning and talking to different people who say that they don't worry as much about the oxygen tanks because they have flown on these medevac jets many times and they don't worry about oxygen tanks as a rule until you get much higher. until the pressure is becoming more of a factor. that is what they are telling me. and then you have others saying no, we worry about it at all times and then we should point out that even planes that are not flying ambulances, even plains that are passenger planes normally have oxygen on them. a lot of oxygen when we talk about big planes. it is not really a concern. so i think to focus on the oxygen right now is valuable but also you have to look at the engines, you have to look at weather the stall -- how does the plane go up to 1600 feet? you are still climbing, you have still got lift, you still have flaps down and all of a sudden you stall and go into a

death spiral. that is the question that investigators are going to look at. and in the meantime, we will also reiterate that it hit outside the mall and it did have injuries. we don't know if these are injuries from the fires in the row homes that are nearby, we don't know if they are impact injuries or shrapnel just spreading and wreckage spreading and hurting people. and we don't know if there was the impact of the fire that hurt people, we haven't got that information yet. but we do know that there are several injuries on the ground. but none in the actual mall itself. meaning that it is pretty clear now that this did not hit the mall itself. which is a good sign. but for the homes around there, the people around there, the cars in the parking lot, people in the cars, is a very bad sign and when all is clear, jesse, you will have new numbers and they are not going to be good. >> jesse: we were looking at different videos and the video we played a little while ago, it did not look like the plane was

on fire as it was headed to the ground and then we just saw some other video from one of the ring doorbell cameras where it did look like a fireball. going right into the ground. so right now the video does look like the plane is on fire, the other video does not. i think we are not going to know until days and weeks ahead. one of the other theories from one of the other aviation experts said that it could have been disoriented, inexperienced pilots. but you mentioned earlier that the weather was pretty good and the winds were average and not too much cloud cover. >> let me repeat, the time of the was 49 degrees. it's as warm as it has been for a while with light rain, some fog and wind gust of 30 miles per hour. that is ideal weather. when you are flying in that kind of weather, forget about the light rain, planes like rain. it is ideal weather. there is nothing around that

weather forecast that would cause any pilot to be concerned one bit. weather is one thing the takeover to quickly when you see this thing coming down, it does not appear to be on fire. it appears to be lit up. but it does not appear to be on fire. you cannot see anything sticking out outside of what appears to be a falling star. like fuselage, there's nothing sticking out, jesse. but we are going to cover this for the foreseeable future and we will have live coverage coming with fox news at night. >> jesse: and i'm sure we'll get some new videos from some of the eyewitnesses on the ground as the night rolls along, think so much trace. an anchor and licensed pilot john scott is here on the phone. what you think happened here? >> i hate to dispute my buddy trace but i was actually driving through philadelphia around the time of the accident. and the weather was pretty bad.

i can guarantee you that that plane was in the clouds when they were 100 feet off the ground. i have heard the air traffic control tower clear them to take off on runway 24. then they were supposed to naked climbing right turn heading to 290 which is basely 290 degrees westbound. but that was their ultimate destination. missouri. the impact point is back to the east. so my very preliminary theory is that they got up in the cloud, they either lost their instruments or perhaps they got disoriented and were able to read them. i'm not one to blame the pilot here. he may have lost lighting, you may have lost his instruments. and if you are in the clouds and you don't have instruments in an aircraft, you are in serious

trouble. what might have happened from that point is if he had enough instrumentation to tell him he was picking up speed, meaning diving, he might have pulled back to hard on the yoke and broken a piece off of the airplane at which point it becomes uncontrollable. i bet if somebody finds a piece of a tale or an aileron in their yard tomorrow and it is not involved, not a result of the explosion, i think that's what they are going to find. that the pilot somehow lost control of the aircraft, may be tried to pull up too fast and something broke off. that is my theory. >> jesse: you know john, i remember you were anchoring fox on 9/11. and now we have had this horrible tragedy in washington, d.c., and now today in philadelphia. what does this make you think

and terms of just these planes in the air and the saddest thing to cover as a news anchor. what are your thoughts? >> it is terribly sad. but as a pilot myself, my plane gets a very thorough inspection every year. and every other aircraft does. commercial jets get more inspected -- it often inspected more than that. it really is a very safe way of transportation. it is just mathematically awed that we have these two crashes back-to-back. but i would be surprised if we see another one anytime soon. because the aviation system in this country is very safe. >> jesse: and there is really nothing the control tower can do at this point. it looks like they totally lost the ability to see this plane immediately on radar.

and this thing came down like a bomb. and then just spread fire all over this neighborhood. >> right. and that's another thing i was going to say. looking at that video, i don't think the aircraft was on fire. first of all, in the 30 seconds or so that they were in the air, it would have been incredibly difficult for a fire to engulf the exterior of the aircraft. i think what you are seeing is the take off flight. there take off landing lights and they are extremely bright. and they probably had not turned them off yet after takeoff. they weren't in the air long enough to go through some of those things. i heard on the traffic control tower that they tell them to switch over to philadelphia approach and anyway, they just

didn't get any response. >> jesse: john scott, think you so much. president trump has been briefed on that this deadly crash in northeast philadelphia by the transportation secretary, sean duffy. as we told you, there are six people dead. this was a pediatric patient that was being transported in a net ambulance jet. this is a very elite jet that is used to bring david ortiz all the way from the caribbean, all the way to boston. so this thing, if you need to get somewhere and this plane for a medical emergency, this is the way to go. it went up and immediately went down. there are lots of different theories about what happened but we are not ruling anything out and we will wait for a full investigation. our hearts and prayers go out to everybody on the plane and everyone in philly. >> sean: we begin this frida