Crew members, passengers killed in Philadelphia medical jet crash identified

PHILADELPHIA — We have now learned the names of all six people aboard a medical jet who perished when the plane crashed into a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood on Friday evening.

Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales and Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez have been identified as the pilot and co-pilot of the flight.

Paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla and Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo were also aboard the plane.

They were traveling with the pediatric patient, 11-year-old Valentina Guzman Murillo, and her mother, 31-year-old Lizaeth Murillo Osuna.

Valentina Guzman Murillo was in Philadelphia to receive care from Shriners Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

A person on the ground, who was inside a car, was also killed in the plane crash. That person’s name has not been released.

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In an update Sunday, Mayor Cherelle Parker said that 22 people were injured. Of those, five people remain hospitalized, with three of them in critical condition.

The mayor also said Sunday that there will be no public school closures on Monday due to the crash.

The jet took off at 6:06 p.m. Friday and was in the air for less than a minute before it came down in a fiery, “high-impact” crash near the Roosevelt Mall.

The Learjet 55 climbed to about 1,500 feet in the air and then rapidly descended, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Hicks told reporters during a press briefing Saturday.

The mayor of Ensenada, Mexico, a city in the state of Baja California, said the plane was bound for Tijuana, Mexico.

There was no indication of a problem radioed from the flight deck of the jet back to Air Traffic Control before the crash, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters. “In fact, in the recording that we have, there is an attempt by air traffic controllers to get a response from the flight crew that they didn’t receive,” she said.

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The NTSB has classified the crash as an accident.

The “high-impact” crash left debris scattered across four to five city blocks, Homendy said. Investigators have yet to recover the jet’s black box, which she said may have been damaged or destroyed.

“It could be intact,” she said. “But likely it is damaged. It may be fragmented.”

Philadelphia residents or business owners who find debris should email the NTSB at [email protected], Homendy said.

Earlier, the mayor said residents could also call 911 if they come across airplane debris.

Investigators will spend several days and, possibly, weeks collecting debris from the scene, the NTSB chair said.

At least five homes caught fire in the aftermath of the crash, Philadelphia officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

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The crash of the medical jet came just two days after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet near Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

Homendy said her agency is able to carry out both investigations simultaneously.

“We are a highly skilled agency,” she said, adding that it’s not unusual for the board to investigate two incidents.

In a message posted on social media platform X, U.S. Transportation Sean Duffy called the back-to-back disasters a “heart-wrenching week.”

Regarding the Philadelphia crash, Duffy said, “We’re not going to have answers right away. It’s going to take time. But as I get those answers, I’m going to share it with all of you.”