Philadelphia plane crash: Engines and cockpit voice recorder recovered from wreckage
Investigators have located the engines and cockpit voice recorder from the small medical transport jet that crashed in Philadelphia Friday evening, killing seven people.
The jet, which was carrying a child and her mother along with four other people, was in the air for less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport before coming down in a fiery "high-impact" crash.
The Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, took off at 6:06 p.m. Friday, climbed to about 1,500 feet and then rapidly descended, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Hicks.
"The entire flight lasted less than a minute," Hicks said.
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All six people aboard the jet died in the crash, including the child, who had just received care from Shriner's Hospital in Philadelphia and was returning home to Mexico with her mother. There were also four crew members on board. All were Mexican citizens, according to a statement from the Mexican government.
NTSB investigators announced on Sunday that the aircraft's engines and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) had been recovered from the crash.
The CVR was located at the site of initial impact, at a depth of eight feet, according to investigators.
The airplane’s enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), which could also contain flight data was recovered Sunday as well, officials said. Both components will be sent to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for evaluation.
During a Sunday morning news conference, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said all those aboard the jet were Mexican citizens.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance identified those aboard the crashed jet as 11-year-old pediatric patient Valentina Guzman Murillo and her 31-year-old mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna; Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, paramedic Lopez Padilla, flight Capt. Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales and co-pilot Josue De Jesus Juarez Juarez.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said Montoya Perales, 46, had worked for the company since 2016, and that 43-year-old Juarez Juarez had been with the company since December 2023. Arredondo, 41, has been flying with the air ambulance company since 2020 and 41-year-old Padilla has been with the company since November 2023.
The mayor of Ensenada, Mexico, a city in the state of Baja California, confirmed two of the victims as Valentina Guzman Murillo and her mother.
Ensenada government officials said the plane was bound for Tijuana, Mexico. The plane was scheduled to make a stopover in Springfield, Missouri, before continuing to Tijuana, officials said.
In addition to those aboard the aircraft, at least one person in a vehicle died in the crash. The identity of the person has not been disclosed.
Parker said Sunday that the number of people injured on the ground had risen from 19 to 22. She said five people remained hospitalized as of Sunday, including three in critical condition.
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.
The NTSB has classified the crash as an accident.
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The "high-impact" crash left debris scattered across four to five city blocks, Homendy said.
At least five homes caught fire in the aftermath of the crash, Philadelphia officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting in the investigation.
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 X, Transportation Secretary 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."
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