A young girl aboard the small medevac jet that crashed in Philadelphia died while heading home to Mexico after receiving “life-saving treatment” in the US, an official has said, according to New York Post. The young patient was one of six people who died in the tragedy on Friday, January 31. Among the deceased were four passengers and two crew members.
The Learjet 55 plummeted out of the sky shortly after 6 pm. It crashed less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Missouri’s Springfield-Branson National Airport.
‘She fought quite a lot to survive’
The girl was going back to Tijuana with her mother, a doctor, paramedic, pilot and copilot, according to Shai Gold, spokesman for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, NBC 10 Philadelphia reported. “All I can say is the patient was sponsored by a third-partner charity to undergo life-saving treatment in the US,” Gold said. “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,” Gold added.
The girl was a patient of Shriners Children’s Philadelphia. The facility said in a statement, “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.”
It added, “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.”
{{/usCountry}}It added, “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.”
{{/usCountry}}A huge blast was caused when the Learjet 55 went down. An eyewitness described it as “Earthquakish” to WPVI. “The sky lit up, and I pulled over and basically it was just real bad around it,” the person said. “It lit up the whole sky.”
Philly Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed that the aircraft crashed in a residential neighborhood around three miles from the airport. City Councilman Mike Driscoll said in an X post that “mass casualties” were reported. “This is an active emergency response situation, sadly, with reported mass casualties. Right now, our focus is on the needs of our first responders on the ground, as well as the individuals and families impacted by this tragedy. We will continue to monitor as this unfolds,” Driscoll wrote.