A 10-year-old “superhero” protected his little sister during last week’s plane crash in Philadelphia — and now he’s recovering from being impaled in the head by a piece of metal from the jet, his family said.
Andre Howard was in the car getting doughnuts with his father and two siblings when the Mexico-bound air ambulance crashed near Roosevelt Boulevard and Cottman Avenue just after 6 p.m. Friday, killing seven and wounding many others.
“Heard what we thought was a car crash, but then you see a fury of fire in the air, then a bunch of debris shooting everywhere,” his dad, also named Andre Howard, told ABC 6 Action News.
“My son … tells his little sister, ‘Get down!’” he continued. “And he grabs her [as] I hear the glass shatter. I turn around, there’s a piece of metal sticking out of my son’s head from the plane.”
A good Samaritan raced over, took the shirt off his back and put pressure on the wounded boy’s head.
Then a city cop rushed him to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, where doctors operated immediately.
“They told us my son wasn’t supposed to make it,” Howard said. “They also told us, ‘They don’t do children trauma.’ But they did for us, which was nothing but God.”
Andre’s shaken mom, Lashawn Hamiel, told the station it was hard to see her baby like that.
“As a mother what am I supposed to do?” she said through tears. “But he’s good. He’s pushing through. He’s strong, he’s a jokester, but he’s strong. He’s a superhero.”
Andre’s dad said the same thing.
“To face death yesterday and speaking today, stepping up for his little sister, like I train him and his other little brothers to do off of instinct — he’s my hero,” Howard said.
Hamiel said doctors are trying to keep the boy stable and comfortable while they figure out how to proceed.
The Learjet 55’s shocking crash injured 22 people and killed seven: Valentina Guzman Murillo, 11; her mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna, 31; Capt. Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales; co-pilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez; Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo; paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla; and a bystander on the ground.
Valentina had just gotten life-saving treatment at Shriners Children’s Hospital and was heading home to Mexico when the plane fell directly into the Philadelphia neighborhood.
In a Sunday Facebook post, Susan Marie Fasino wrote she’d helped the mom and daughter, who suffered from spina bifida and had just finished treatment for ailments including a pressure sore.
“We helped them get to Philadelphia shriners for desperately needed medical care,” she wrote, adding that Valentina was “very frail.”
“The plan was to bring them home to live out the rest of her life surrounded with love and with her adoring family,” she said. “Her mother was one of the most adoring attentive mothers a child could ever have. She literally never left her side.”
The news hit the hospital staff hard, spokesperson Mel Bower added.
“It’s extremely hard and extremely difficult, those that were involved directly in her care were very aware that she was going to be traveling home and there had actually been a sendoff for her today,” Bower said.
The jet was scheduled to stop at Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, then head to Mexico.
The crash scene spanned several blocks, and about a dozen homes and businesses were damaged.
Five people are also still in the hospital.
“Our city continues to mourn their loss and they are in our thoughts and prayers,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said of the dead.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and has reportedly recovered the aircraft’s black box.
