By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-02-01 20:42:54 | Updated at 2025-02-02 00:34:42
3 hours ago
The death toll from the crash of a medical plane carrying a Mexican child home from a hospital in Philadelphia has risen to seven, officials said on Saturday, with 19 others wounded.
The crash – the second major aviation disaster in the United States this week – occurred on Friday when the twin-engined Learjet 55 plummeted towards a busy Philadelphia neighbourhood, exploding on impact and showering wreckage over homes and vehicles.
Officials had earlier said that all six on board – a young girl who had been in the United States for medical care, her mother, and members of the flight and medical crews with her – were killed. They were all Mexican nationals.
On Saturday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said that at least one other person, who was in a car, had also been killed, and that 19 people had been wounded.
Speaking at a press conference, Parker warned that the toll was “not etched in stone” and could yet rise.
“We have a lot of unknowns about who was where on the streets of this neighbourhood last night at the time of impact,” said the city’s managing director Adam Thiel, warning that it could be days before the full toll emerged.
