Jet Company Identifies 6 Victims Aboard Medical Flight That Crashed In Philly

An 11-year-old patient and her 31-year-old mother were among the six people who were killed when their medical jet crashed in a residential area in northeast Philadelphia on Friday night.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the company that owned and operated the Learjet 55 aircraft, identified the victims in the crash as Capt. Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales, Copilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, Paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, patient Lizeth Murillo Ozuna, and the patient’s mother, Valentina Guzman Murillo, CBS News reported. All of the victims were Mexican citizens.

A person who was in a car when the Learjet 55 plummeted into the ground like a missile was also killed, but authorities have not yet identified that victim.

The 11-year-old patient and her mother were returning to Mexico after receiving treatment for a life-threatening condition at Shriners Children’s Hospital. The small jet had arrived in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon after departing from Florida earlier in the day. It was then scheduled to make a stop in Springfield, Missouri, before flying to Mexico, according to CBS News.

Officials said that after the medical jet departed from Philadelphia, it made a slight right turn and a slight left turn. It then went on a steep descent before it crashed, resulting in a massive fireball. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the jet crashed less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

Authorities found the jet’s black box buried at the “site of initial impact, at a depth of 8 feet.” Officials also found the aircraft’s enhanced ground proximity warning system, which will be sent, along with the black box, to NTSB investigators in Washington, D.C.

Multiple people on the ground were injured after debris flew into buildings and damaged homes in the area. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said on Sunday that 22 people were injured, with three people in critical condition. The city’s managing director, Adam Thiel, said there remains “a lot of unknowns about who was where on the streets,” adding that the casualty figures could get higher, according to the Associated Press.