The remains of six victims on medical jet that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia are returned to Mexico
The remains of six passengers who died aboard a medical jet that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia were returned to Mexico, their home.
The cremated remains of the six Mexican nationals who died aboard a medical jet that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia earlier this year were returned to loved ones in Mexico City on Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Consulate of Mexico in Philadelphia.
A brief, somber ceremony to mark their departure took place at 3 a.m. outside the Center City headquarters of the consulate. Carlos Obrador Garrido Cuesta, the head consul, helped load six small wooden boxes into the back of an SUV.
“We thank you, and we feel the solidarity of Philadelphia with the Mexican families that will have some sort of closure today,” the head consul told 6abc before accompanying the remains on a flight to Mexico.
The medical transport jet — a Learjet 55 owned by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, headquartered in Mexico City — crashed just after 6 p.m. along Cottman Avenue near the Roosevelt Mall on Jan. 31. Upon impact, the plane exploded in a giant fireball, sending flames and debris into neighboring homes.
Among the passengers who died aboard the jet were 11-year-old Valentina Guzmán Murillo and her 31-year-old mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna. They were returning home after Valentina had spent four months undergoing treatment for a spinal condition at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia.
All six occupants aboard the jet died. They also included the pilot, Alan Montoya Perales, 46; his copilot, Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, 43; a Jet Rescue doctor, Raul Meza Arredonda, 41; and paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, 41.
The jet had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport at 6:06 p.m. and was headed first to Springfield, Mo., then to Mexico, where the recovering girl and her mother lived in a town outside Tijuana.
The plane crash injured at least 24 people on the ground and killed a Philadelphia father, 37-year-old Steven Dreuitt Jr., who died after flames engulfed his car. Dreuitt’s 9-year-old son, Ramesses, and his fiancée, Dominque Goods-Burke, suffered serious burns and remain hospitalized.
A preliminary investigative report, released last month by the National Transportation Safety Board, found that the jet’s cockpit voice recorder likely hadn’t worked for several years. Investigators had hoped a recording would offer clues about what had gone wrong. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Before daybreak on Friday, a procession of cars departed from the Consulate of Mexico at 17th and Arch Streets and headed to the Philadelphia International Airport. Several first responders, who had rushed to help crash victims that night, joined the procession.
A consulate spokesperson said the head consul planned to deliver the victims’ remains to family members during a private ceremony late Friday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City.