Philadelphia plane crash: three injured remain in critical condition, says the mayor

Philadelphia (AP) – Three people injured on the ground when a jet crashed in a lively district of Philadelphia, kill seven People, remain in critical condition, said the mayor on Sunday, Cherrelle Parker.

Parker said 22 people had been injured and that five of them remain hospitalized. At least 11 houses were considerably damaged, as well as certain companies.

“Our city continues to cry their loss and they are in our thoughts and prayers,” said Parker about the deceased.

An air ambulance linked to Mexico Immersed on the ground on Friday evening, less than a minute after takeoff of the northeast airport of Philadelphia with six people on board, including a girl who had spent months being treated in a city hospital.

One of the dead was killed inside a car while the debris of the Learjet 55 accident exploded in the neighborhood, damaging the neighboring houses.

The investigation into the accident has remained in progress, said Parker, adding that civil servants were driving to search for information from residents in the neighborhood.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday that the investigators had recovered the vocal recorder of the jet cockpit on the impact site at a depth of about 8 feet (2.4 meters). The floor aircraft alert system, which could also contain flight data, said the agency on social networks.

The accident came only two days after The deadliest air disaster In a generation, when an American airline of airlines transported 60 passengers and four crew members Having entered outdoors In Washington, DC, with an army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors.

An animated track near the site of the Philadelphia accident remained closed on Sunday, but the police said that Roosevelt boulevard would go on rush hour on Monday morning.

The district known as Castor Gardens is a worker area of ​​dense houses in the row, said state representative Jared Solomon, who grew up there. It is a highly frequented commercial and residential area intertwined by intense circulation.

“These are just people who want to help others,” said Solomon on Sunday. “They are nurses, they are construction workers, they are the first stakeholders. In a community that is always about to help others in and around our city; Now we are in a way able to turn inwards and all unite together. »»

The plane, bound for Tijuana with a stop provided in Missouri, had reached about 1,500 feet (457 meters) before falling on the ground. The president of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, described it as a “strong impact crash” which left the plane “very fragmented”. She said NTTSB staff would try to collect wreckage debris, a process that could take weeks.

The child had recently completed treatment at the Philadelphia hospital in Shriners Children for a condition that was not easily treated in Mexico, hospital officials said. His mother and four crew members also died. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said the six victims of the plane came from her country.

The officials of Philadelphia and the owner of the plane Jet Rescue Air Ambulance did not reveal the identity of the dead, but Xe Medic Ambulancias, a Mexican emergency service, identified one of the victims like Dr. Raúl Meza de The state of Mexico near Mexico City, the air air ambulance The head of the neonatology of the company. Parents of Josué Juárez de Veracruz said he was the co -pilot of the plane.

Parker said that the names of all the victims who died of Mexico will not be made public until the officials of the Mexican consulate consider it appropriate.

But in Mexico, the municipal government of Ensenada confirmed that two of the victims came from this coastal city in the state of Baja in California and identified them as Valentina Guzmán Murillo and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which operated the plane recorded in Mexico which 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 invaded a track in the central Mexican state of Morelos and crashed into a hill.

The audio recorded by Liveatc has captured an air traffic controller at the northeast airport of Philadelphia by saying to “Medevac Medservice 056” to turn right at the start. About 30 seconds later, the controller repeats the request before asking: “Are you on the frequency?” A few minutes later, the controller said, “We have a lost plane. We don’t know exactly what happened, so we try to understand it. For the moment, the field will be closed. »»