Medevac plane crash victim ID’d as young girl headed home to Mexico after ‘life-saving treatment’ in US
The young patient who was on board the small medevac jet that crashed in a Philadelphia neighborhood Friday evening was heading home to Mexico after receiving “life-saving treatment” in the US, an official said.
The girl was one of six — four passengers and two crew members — onboard the Learjet 55 that plummeted out of the sky shortly after 6 p.m., less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Missouri’s Springfield-Branson National Airport.
The child was heading back to Tijuana with her mother, a doctor, paramedic, pilot and copilot, Shai Gold, spokesman for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, told NBC 10 Philadelphia.
“All I can say is the patient was sponsored by a third-partner charity to undergo life-saving treatment in the US,” Gold said, adding, “She did her course of care. She was going home.
“She fought quite a lot to survive, and unfortunately this tragedy on the way home.”
The girl was a patient of Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, the hospital confirmed to NBC 10.
“Shriners Children’s is heartbroken to confirm that one of our pediatric patients and the child’s mother were aboard the Jet Rescue Air Ambulance that crashed in Philadelphia this evening,” the facility said in a statement.
“The patient had received care from Shriners Children’s Philadelphia and was being transported back to her home country in Mexico on a contracted air ambulance when the crash happened. Because of patient privacy concerns, we cannot say any more about the patient and her family at this time.”
Here is the latest on the Philadelphia medevac jet crash
- Apocalyptic videos emerge from the scene of deadly Philadelphia plane crash
- Young girl killed in Philadelphia plane crash mourned by hospital staff — who threw her farewell party just hours before tragedy: ‘Unthinkable’
- Philadelphia medical jet crash was ‘like a horror movie,’ shocked residents say
- Man sitting in restaurant gets hit in the head by debris from Philadelphia plane crash
- All six victims of Philly plane crash were Mexican citizens, Mexican president says
- Medical jet crash left ‘huge’ hole in Philadelphia house, ‘sounded like a bomb went off’: witnesses
- Dashcam, doorbell footage captures horrifying moment medevac jet crashed in Philadelphia neighborhood
- Chilling audio reveals final moments before Philadelphia plane crash: ‘We have a lost aircraft’
- Medevac plane crash victim ID’d as young girl headed home to Mexico after ‘life-saving treatment’ in US
- Small medevac jet carrying pediatric patient crashes near Philadelphia mall, unleashing fireball with multiple casualties reported
The Learjet 55 caused a massive blast when it went down, with one eyewitness describing it as “Earthquakish” to WPVI.
“The sky lit up, and I pulled over and basically it was just real bad around it,” they said.
“It lit up the whole sky.”
The aircraft crashed in a residential neighborhood around three miles from the airport, setting several homes and cars ablaze, Philly Mayor Cherelle Parker said.
Video footage showed heavy plumes of smoke billowing into the night sky as debris was scattered across the parking lot of the nearby Roosevelt Mall.
Mass casualties were reported, according to an X post from City Councilman Mike Driscoll.
A spokesperson from the Federal Aviation Administration told The Post that the agency will investigate the tragic crash with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Learjet 55 crash comes just days after an Army Black Hawk helicopter’s midair collision with an American Airlines flight over Washington, DC, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.
Wednesday was the deadliest aviation crash on US soil since Nov. 12, 2001, when 260 passengers died after an American Airlines jet plummeted into a New York City neighborhood just two months after the 9/11 terror attacks.
