KUALA LUMPUR – A child heading home after life-saving treatment and her mother were among the six people on the medial transport plane that crashed into a residential area in northeast Philadelphia last night.
A spokesperson for the transport company, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, was reported saying by US media that the girl had been treated at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia for a “life-threatening condition”.
“The patient was sponsored by a third-partner charity to undergo life-saving treatment in the US. 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,” Shai Gold told NBC10.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which services patients in Mexico and Latin American countries, earlier confirmed that six people onboard the Learjet 55 plane were four crew members, a paediatric patient and the patient’s escort.
The company said it could not confirm any survivors, while Philadelphia authorities have not released the identities of those onboard.
The patient was a girl from Mexico, age unspecified.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry in a post on X confirmed that all onboard the plane were of Mexican nationality.
The plane crashed into a neighbourhood near the Roosevelt Mall very soon after departing the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, with emergency calls coming just about five minutes after its take-off, according to local police.
It was headed for the Springfield-Branson National Airport in Springfield, Missouri, and from there, to Tijuana, Mexico, its final destination.
Shriners Children’s Hospital spokesperson Mel Bower told local media that hospital staff had held a sendoff for the patient before she left the healthcare facility. Bower also said the two doctors on the plane were staff of the air ambulance service.
Video recordings of the incident show the plane appearing to be on fire as it plunged to the ground, and a huge fireball exploding upon impact. Local police have said there are “multiple casualties” on the ground. – February 1, 2025