A person in a car was the seventh fatal victim of the fiery crash of an air ambulance – which had been bound for Tijuana – onto a busy Philadelphia street, authorities said Saturday.
Investigators sifted through burned cars, damaged homes and charred debris for clues to determine why the aircraft plummeted shortly after takeoff at 6 p.m. EST Friday.
Carrying six people from Mexico, including a child who spent months in treatment at a hospital, the Learjet 55 went down just after departing from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, creating what witnesses described as a massive fireball, shaking houses and leaving a chaotic street scene.
The plane took off, reached about 1,500 feet and then plummeted in a steep descent, crashing less than a minute after takeoff in what National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy called a “high-impact crash” that left the plane “highly fragmented.”
The crash scene was at least four to six blocks, and authorities were working to assess the damage, including going house to house to inspect dwellings.
Homendy said her agency’s staff was working to collect debris from the plane, which could take days or weeks, and haul it away to a secure location to begin evaluating it.
Air traffic controllers didn’t hear anything concerning before the crash, and her agency was still looking for the cockpit voice recorder, Homendy said.
Child patient had just finished treatment for life-threatening condition
Of the six people on board the medical transport jet, one was a child who had just completed treatment at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia hospital, one was her mother and four were crew members, officials said.
A hospital spokesperson said the girl spent four months there receiving life-saving treatment for a condition not easily treated in Mexico. Shriners officials said they couldn’t give details about the girl or her family because of patient privacy rules.
“Her journey was one of hope and of aspiration,” spokesperson Mel Bower told The Philadelphia Inquirer. The relationships that the girl formed with staff “were true and were dear,” and she’ll be missed greatly by them, he said.
All the victims on the jet were from Mexico
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said all six victims on the plane were from her country. In a statement on the social media platform X, she mourned their deaths.
“Consular authorities are in constant contact with the families; I have asked the Foreign Affairs Secretary to support whatever is needed. My solidarity with their loved ones and friends,” she said in Spanish.
Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, was to have been the flight’s final destination after a stop in Missouri.
Neither Philadelphia officials nor plane owner Jet Rescue Air Ambulance disclosed the identities of the dead.
But XE Médica Ambulancias, a Mexican emergency service, identified one of its doctors, Raúl Meza, as a victim. In a post on X, it said he was the service’s chief of neonatology and assigned to a the ISEM Atizapán hospital, near Mexico City.
In Veracruz, a city on the Gulf of Mexico, relatives of Josué Juárez said he was the aircraft’s co-pilot. They were preparing to hold a family ceremony and staying away from TV and social media to avoid seeing images of the crash.
They hadn’t seen videos, but they were told that there was a horrible explosion, that the plane broke apart and that the crash scene covered several blocks, brother Édgar Juárez told The Associated Press by phone.
Josué Juárez, 43, lived in central Mexico, loved salsa dancing and video games and had been a pilot for more than a decade, his brother said. He loved to fly and worked for the air ambulance service for more than a year, flying mostly from Mexico’s Caribbean coast to the United States.
“He was always aware that he had his risks, but the truth is that more accidents happen on the road,” Édgar Juárez said.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which operated the Mexico-registered Learjet 55, has operations both in Mexico and Miami.
Air traffic controller lost contact with Learjet
The Learjet took off from an airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights.
Audio recorded by LiveATC captured an air traffic controller telling “Medevac Medservice 056” to turn right when departing. About 30 seconds later, the controller repeats the request before asking, “You on frequency?” Minutes later the controller says, “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.”
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Plane That Crashed on Philadelphia Street Was Bound for Tijuana with 6 Aboard )
Also on site :
- Andrea Fuder, Chief Purchasing Officer at Volvo Group has tragically passed away
- Lawyer admits ‘embarrassing’ mistake after Anthropic’s Claude made up a source in a legal filing—and no one caught it
- Major companies are anxiously awaiting to see whether or not they will be targeted by the federal government for a DEI investigation