Philadelphia Plane Crash Kills Seven, Injures Dozens; Investigation Underway
A devastating plane crash in a bustling Philadelphia neighborhood claimed the lives of seven people, including six aboard a medical transport jet and one person on the ground, The Associated Press reports.
The crash, which also left three people in critical condition and a further 19 injured, occurred shortly after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, plunging a Mexico-bound Learjet 55 into a densely populated area of the city.
Mayor Cherelle Parker announced on Sunday that 22 people had been injured in total, with five still hospitalized. The impact of the crash was significant, causing considerable damage to at least 11 homes and some businesses in the Castor Gardens neighborhood. One of the fatalities on the ground occurred inside a car as debris rained down from the sky.
The aircraft, an air ambulance operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, was headed for Tijuana, Mexico, with a scheduled stop in Missouri. The plane was carrying six people: a young girl who had recently completed treatment at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia hospital for a condition that could not easily be treated in Mexico, her mother, and four crew members. All six passengers on board were Mexican citizens.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has launched an investigation into the crash, having recovered the jet’s cockpit voice recorder and ground proximity warning system from the crash site on Sunday. These devices could potentially hold critical flight data that will be analysed as part of the ongoing investigation. The NTSB will begin the process of debris collection which is expected to take weeks.
The crash happened just two days after another major air disaster in Washington, D.C., which saw a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter, killing all 67 people aboard the two aircraft.
The plane, which had reached about 1,500 feet, is described by NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy as a “high-impact crash” that left the plane “highly fragmented.”
The community of Castor Gardens, described as a working-class area with dense row homes, was deeply impacted by the crash. State Rep. Jared Solomon, who grew up in the neighborhood, called it a busy commercial and residential area with heavy traffic. While the nearby busy thoroughfare was closed after the crash, police say it would be re-opened by the Monday morning rush hour.
Neither the city of Philadelphia nor Jet Rescue Air Ambulance has officially released the names of the victims. However, XE Médica Ambulancias, a Mexican emergency service, identified one of the victims as Dr. Raúl Meza, the air ambulance company’s chief of neonatology. It was also confirmed by his family that Josué Juárez was the aircraft’s co-pilot. In Mexico, the Ensenada municipal government confirmed that two of the victims were from that coastal city and identified them as Valentina Guzmán Murillo and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna.
Mayor Parker said that the names of the deceased victims from Mexico will not be made public until Mexican consulate officials deem it appropriate.
LiveATC audio recordings captured an air traffic controller at Northeast Philadelphia Airport instructing “Medevac Medservice 056” to turn right shortly after takeoff. About 30 seconds later, the controller repeated the request, followed by the question, “You on frequency?” Minutes later, the controller is heard saying “We have a lost aircraft. We’re not exactly sure what happened, so we’re trying to figure it out. For now the field is going to be closed.”
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which is based in Mexico with operations in Miami, has a history of safety concerns. In 2023, five crew members working for the company were killed when their plane overran a runway in the central Mexican state of Morelos.
