Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA 鈥� Three people injured on the ground when a jet crashed in a busy Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven people, remain in critical condition, Mayor Cherelle Parker said Sunday.
Parker said 22 people were injured and five of them remain hospitalized. At least 11 homes were significantly damaged, along with some businesses.
鈥淥ur city continues to mourn their loss and they are in our thoughts and prayers,鈥� Parker said of the deceased.
plunged to the ground Friday evening, less than a minute after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport with six people on board, including a girl who had spent months being treated at a city hospital.
One of the dead was killed inside a car as debris from the Learjet 55 crash exploded into the neighborhood, damaging nearby homes.
The investigation into the crash remained ongoing, Parker said, adding that officials were going door to door to seek information from neighborhood residents.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday that investigators recovered the jet鈥檚 cockpit voice recorder at the impact site at a depth of about 8 feet (2.4 meters). Also recovered was the aircraft鈥檚 ground proximity warning system, which could also contain flight data, the agency said on social media.
The crash came just two days after the in a generation, when an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members in Washington, D.C., with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors.
A busy thoroughfare near the Philadelphia crash site remained closed Sunday, but police said Roosevelt Boulevard would reopen by rush hour Monday morning.
The neighborhood known as Castor Gardens is a working-class area of dense row homes, said state Rep. Jared Solomon, who grew up there. It鈥檚 a busy commercial and residential area crisscrossed by heavy traffic.
鈥淭hese are just people who want to help others,鈥� Solomon said Sunday. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e nurses, they鈥檙e construction workers, they are first responders. In a community that is always poised to help others in and around our city; now we sort of are able to turn inward and all unite together.鈥�
The plane, bound for Tijuana with a scheduled stop in Missouri, had reached about 1,500 feet (457 meters) before it plummeted to the ground. National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy called it a 鈥渉igh-impact crash鈥� that left the plane 鈥渉ighly fragmented.鈥� She said NTSB staff would be working to collect debris from the wreckage, a process that could take weeks.
The child had recently completed treatment at Shriners Children鈥檚 Philadelphia hospital for a condition not easily treated in Mexico, hospital officials said. Her mother and four crew members also died. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said all six victims on the plane were from her country.
Philadelphia officials and plane owner Jet Rescue Air Ambulance have not disclosed the identities of the dead, but XE M茅dica Ambulancias, a Mexican emergency service, identified one of the victims as Dr. Ra煤l Meza of the State of Mexico near Mexico City, the air ambulance company鈥檚 chief of neonatology. Relatives of Josu茅 Ju谩rez of Veracruz said he was the aircraft鈥檚 co-pilot.
Parker said names of all of the deceased victims from Mexico will not be made public until Mexican consulate officials deem it appropriate.
But in Mexico, the Ensenada municipal government confirmed that two of the victims were from that coastal city in Baja California state and identified them as Valentina Guzm谩n Murillo and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which operated the Mexico-registered airplane that crashed in Philadelphia, is based in Mexico and also has operations in Miami. In 2023 five crew members working for Jet Rescue were killed when their plane overran a runway in the central Mexican state of Morelos and crashed into a hillside.
Audio recorded by LiveATC captured an air traffic controller at Northeast Philadelphia Airport telling 鈥淢edevac Medservice 056鈥� to turn right when departing. About 30 seconds later, the controller repeats the request before asking, 鈥淵ou on frequency?鈥� Minutes later the controller says, 鈥淲e have a lost aircraft. We鈥檙e not exactly sure what happened, so we鈥檙e trying to figure it out. For now the field is going to be closed.鈥�