Philly will mark grim first anniversary of plane crash with a remembrance event

One year ago today, a deadly medical jet crash devastated Northeast Philadelphia, killing eight people, injuring dozens of others, and impacting hundreds of homes.

The destruction spanned multiple blocks, spreading wreckage across a debris field that stretched for more than a quarter mile near Roosevelt Mall on Cottman Avenue. The resulting damages totaled in the millions of dollars, and many area residents were left displaced and traumatized.

Now, on its first grim anniversary, the crash’s effects still loom large — not only in the memories of those directly impacted by the crash, but in the local and regional psyche.

With that in mind, city officials plan to hold a memorial observance to honor its victims. The event, slated to start at 5 p.m. at Engine 71 Fire Station — just blocks from where the crash occurred — will include a bell ceremony and wreath-laying. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and other elected officials will speak.

As city officials said at the time, the crash was among the most significant black swan tragedies in Philadelphia’s history. And, in many ways, the neighborhood is still recovering. Here is what you need to know:

At 6:06 p.m., a Learjet 55 operated by a Mexican medical transport company known as Jet Rescue Air Ambulance took off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri on its way back to Mexico. Less than a minute later, after making it 1,650 feet into the air, it went nose down about 3.5 miles away from the airport, slamming into the ground near Bustleton and Cottman Avenues at a 45-degree angle at more than 270 mph.

The crash tore an 8-foot deep crater into the earth and created a massive fireball that illuminated the neighborhood. The impact spread devastation across a 1,410-foot-long-by-840-foot-wide tract, damaging homes, vehicles, and businesses, and scattering human remains amid the debris field.

All six people aboard the aircraft were killed — among them Valentina Guzmán Murillo, 11, and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, 31. The pair were on their way home after Valentina had received four months of treatment for a spinal condition at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, with her doctors celebrating her recovery only hours before.

Also killed were captain Alan Montoya Perales, 46; copilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, 43; doctor Raul Meza Arredondo, 41; and paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, 41. On the ground, Steven Dreuitt Jr., 37, died as a result of the crash, as did his fiancée, Dominique Goods Burke, 34, who succumbed months later to injuries she suffered that night.

At least 24 other people were injured, with victims ranging in age from 4 to 85. Many suffered severe burns, smoke inhalation, and skull fractures, including 9-year-old Ramesses Dreuitt Vazquez, the young son of Dreuitt, who suffered burns over 90% of his body and spent nearly a year in the hospital before being released.

The emergency response was massive, involving about 400 firefighters, police officers, and other first responders. Investigators later found that more than 300 properties had been impacted in some way.

The incident, Parker said the night of the crash, was an “all hands on deck” situation. Eyewitnesses and emergency responders described the ensuing chaos as resembling a war zone or feeling like a movie.

“This is a huge area,” Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said of the crash site. “Nothing in that area will ever be normal again.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro and other officials also toured the devastated area. Ultimately, despite the damage the crash wrought, Shapiro’s office found that the impacts were too limited to ask President Donald Trump‘s administration for a federal disaster declaration, leaving the city and state to lead recovery efforts.

The investigation was led by the National Transportation Safety Board, which early on noted that the crashed craft made no distress calls and had only brief, routine communications with the Northeast Philadelphia Airport control tower after takeoff.

That left the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder — or “black box” — as a key investigatory element. Days later, searchers found the unit at the bottom of the crater the craft had carved into the earth, but it was largely useless.

The recorder, the NTSB said, had “likely not been recording audio for several years,” and contained no clues as to what may have caused the crash. No official cause for the crash has yet been announced.

Reviews of the craft’s flight records, however, found that it had been used extensively in the months and weeks leading up to the crash. In the five days before the disaster, it had flown 12 flights covering 9,400 miles, and in its final year before it was destroyed, the aircraft had 163 takeoffs.

In June, five months after the crash, more than a dozen local residents and business owners told The Inquirer they were still grappling with unrepaired property damage and catching up on bills from lost incomes or extra expenses.

The city had marshaled significant resources, including opening sites offering mental health services and financial aid, and steering roughly $264,000 in grants to small businesses. The One Philly Fund, which was launched to serve as the city’s signature relief effort, however, only attracted some $35,000 in donations, falling woefully short of its desired impact.

Meanwhile, insurance claims were expected to exceed $10 million, and the city itself sought claims for property damage and personnel costs eclipsing $2.5 million. The medical jet company’s insurer, El Águila Compania de Seguros, hoped to consolidate all claims under a single court case, and compel a federal judge to divvy up the funds, which it said were “unlikely to be sufficient to resolve all claims.”

Later in the year, lawsuits against the medical jet company were filed.

Despite the trauma and devastation the crash brought to Philadelphia, at the end of 2025, there was at least some good news. Ramesses Dreuitt Vazquez, a boy who was severely injured in the crash, was released from the hospital, just in time for the holidays.

Vazquez, who turned 10 in October, had endured almost a full year in the hospital, undergoing more than 40 surgeries, including multiple skin grafts, and the amputation of fingers and ears. He spent months in physical therapy relearning how to get out of bed, walk, and climb stairs.

But about a week before Christmas, he made it out. And while noting that Ramesses faced a challenging road ahead, the boy’s grandmother, Alberta “Amira” Brown, expressed happiness with his recovery.

“It’s the best thing ever that he’ll be home for the holidays,” Brown told The Inquirer. “He is truly happy to be coming home.”