A seventh person has died after a small plane crash Friday night in Philadelphia, while all six people who died aboard the medical transport aircraft were identified Sunday.
Five injured people on the ground remained hospitalized Sunday evening, with three in critical condition, according to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. The seventh person killed in the wreck had been in a vehicle on the ground when the plane crashed.
The flight was in the air for less than a minute, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said.
The medical transport plane was supposed to fly from Philadelphia to Tijuana, Mexico, with an 11-year-old girl who had just been released from a children’s hospital in Philadelphia.
Valentina Guzman Murillo and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna, were the passengers on board, according to Jet Rescue Air Ambulance. The pilot was Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales, and the co-pilot was Josue De Jesus Juarez Juarez, the company said.
Also on board were Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, who was treating Valentina, and paramedic Lopez Padilla. All six people were Mexican citizens.
Debris from a plane is seen on a street after it crashed in Philadelphia on Friday night. (@Kikatechusa via AP)
In total, 22 people were injured in the shocking crash, which came just two days after the deadliest air disaster in the U.S. since November 2001. In that incident, American Airlines Flight 5342 was struck by a helicopter as it approached Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. All 64 people on the plane and three people aboard the helicopter were killed.
Prior to Friday night’s deadly flight, 11-year-old Valentina had spent months in a Philadelphia hospital being treated for a serious illness for which she could not find sufficient medical treatment in Mexico. She had just been released to fly home alongside her mother.
Authorities are still investigating why the flight crashed so quickly after takeoff. Debris was found across four to five city blocks, and investigators were still searching for the plane’s black box on Sunday.