Passengers, crew killed in 'high-impact' air ambulance crash in Philadelphia identified

Video above: A doorbell camera captures the moment a medical plane crashed in Northeast Philadelphia, killing all six aboard and a person on the ground.

(NEXSTAR) — Six of the victims in Friday’s deadly medical plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia have been identified, according to multiple reports.

There were six people, all from Mexico, aboard the Jet Rescue Air Ambulance when it crashed onto a busy street Friday night. All six, including a child patient who had just completed treatment at a Shriners Children’s Hospital, were killed in the crash.

On Sunday, a spokesperson for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance identified those aboard the plane to CBS News and ABC News as Captain Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales, copilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, 11-year-old Valentina Guzman Murillo, and Valentina’s mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna.

A seventh person, who had been in a car at the time of the crash, also died. They have not yet been identified.

Slideshow: Officials investigate ‘high-impact’ Philadelphia plane crash

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed Sunday morning that the number of people injured on the ground had risen to 22.

“Five of the victims remain hospitalized currently and three of them are in critical condition,” Parker said during a press conference. She did not provide additional information regarding the other people who had been injured.

According to Parker, investigators were continuing to canvass the neighborhood for information from residents.

Friday’s crash happened less than a minute after the plane had taken off from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The flight reached 1,500 feet before crashing in a fiery cloud less than 3 miles from the airport, setting several homes in the area aflame.

National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy called it a “high-impact crash” that left the plane “highly fragmented.”

Authorities couldn’t yet say why the jet crashed, and Adam Thiel, the city’s managing director, said it could be days — or longer — until officials are able to fully count the number of dead and injured across a sprawling impact area in a densely populated residential area.

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 the dwellings, Thiel said.

Air traffic controllers didn’t hear anything concerning before the crash, and the NTSB was still looking for the cockpit voice recorder, a helpful piece of evidence in the investigation, Homendy said. It is likely damaged and possibly fragmented because of the impact, although her agency’s researchers and engineers have significant expertise in repairing them, she said.

The air traffic controller had, however, lost contact with the plane just before the crash.

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.”

The Learjet 55 was en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, according to the FAA, with a final destination in Tijuana, Mexico.

A spokesperson for Shriners Children’s Hospital said Valentina Guzman Murillo spent four months there receiving life-saving treatment for a condition not easily treated in Mexico.

“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.

The Philadelphia crash was the second fatal incident in 15 months for Jet Rescue. In 2023 five crew members were killed when their plane overran a runway in the central Mexican state of Morelos and crashed into a hillside.

Jet Rescue, which provides global air ambulance services, flew baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and was involved in transporting patients critically ill with COVID-19.

Friday’s crash came just two days after the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation. On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in midair in Washington, D.C., with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors.

The Associated Press, as well as Nexstar’s Russell Falcon and Jeremy Tanner, contributed to this report.

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