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LAST UPDATE | 1 Feb
ALL SIX PEOPLE on board a medical transport jet that crashed in Philadelphia were killed, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said.
The dead included a child who was receiving treatment at a Philadelphia hospital and her mother.
At least six people on the ground were injured in the crash on Friday.
Sheinbaum expressed condolences on Saturday morning in a statement on the social media platform X.
“I mourn the passing of six Mexicans in the aviation accident in Philadelphia, United States. Consular authorities are in constant contact with the families; I’ve asked the Foreign Affairs Secretary to support whatever is needed. My solidarity with their loved ones and friends,” she said in a statement written in Spanish.
The medical transport jet was transporting a child who had just completed treatment for a life-threatening condition at Shriners Children’s Hospital, her mother and four others.
It crashed in a Philadelphia neighbourhood shortly after take-off on Friday evening, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance operated the Learjet 55. Everyone aboard the flight was from Mexico. The child was being transported home, according to Jet Rescue spokesperson Shai Gold.
The flight’s final destination was Tijuana after a stop in Missouri.
The patient and her mother were on board along with four crew members. Gold said this was an experienced crew and everyone involved in these flights goes through rigorous training.
“When an incident like this happens, it’s shocking and surprising,” Gold told The Associated Press. “All of the aircraft are maintained, not a penny is spared because we know our mission is so critical.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said at a news conference late on Friday that officials expected fatalities in the “awful aviation disaster”.
A spokesperson for Temple University Hospital-Jeanes, Jennifer Reardon, said they had treated six people with injuries from the crash. Three of those people had since been released and the others were in fair condition. She was not able to provide information about their injuries or where the people were when they sustained them.
The plane was registered in Mexico. Jet Rescue is based in Mexico and has operations both there and in the US.
The crash came just two days after the deadliest US air disaster in a generation.
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in midair in Washington, DC, with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors.
The Philadelphia crash was the second fatal incident in 15 months for Jet Rescue. In 2023 five crewmembers were killed when their plane overran a runway in the central Mexican state of Morelos and crashed into a hillside.
In Philadelphia, a doorbell camera captured video of the plane plunging in a streak of white and exploding as it hit the ground near a shopping mall and major roadway.
“All we heard was a loud roar and didn’t know where it was coming from. We just turned around and saw the big plume,” said Jim Quinn, the owner of the doorbell camera.
The crash happened less than five kilometres from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights.
The Learjet 55 quickly disappeared from radar after taking off from the airport at 6.06pm and climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet. It was registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
Shortly after 6pm, audio recorded by LiveATC captured an air traffic controller telling “Medevac Medservice 056” to turn right when departing.
About 30 seconds later it repeats the request before asking, “You on frequency?” Minutes later, the controller says: “We have a lost aircraft. We’re not exactly sure what happened, so we’re trying to figure it out. For now the field is going to be closed.”
In a post on the social media platform Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said: “So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia.”
“More innocent souls lost,” he added. “Our people are totally engaged.”
A continuous stream of police vehicles and fire trucks initially responded at the crash site, taking over business parking lots. Within about an hour, the cry of sirens and shouted orders had faded into relative quiet at the edges of the closed-off area, and darkness settled in as drivers passing by peered out trying to see what was happening.
The plane crashed in a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping centre in the densely populated neighbourhood of Rhawnhurst.
One mobile phone video taken by a witness moments after the crash showed a chaotic scene with debris scattered across the intersection. A wall of orange glowed just beyond as a plume of black smoke rose into the sky and sirens blared.
Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting at his home in Mayfair, a nearby neighbourhood, when he heard a loud bang and his house shook. He said it felt like a mini earthquake and when he checked his home security camera, it looked like a missile came down.
“There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.
Jet Rescue, which provides global air ambulance services, flew baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and was involved in transporting patients critically ill with Covid-19.
The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. The NTSB said an investigator arrived on Friday and more officials would be there on Saturday.
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I’ve often wondered how the journal decides which stories allow comments and which don’t. For example, in the Hazel Chu story, my comments criticizing her as far-left were popular, but the section was closed. Similarly, the Trump tariffs story was closed too. Why?
I get that some stories need closed comments for legal reasons, like court cases or sensitive topics. But others seem closed without justification. It feels like some editors may have political biases, silencing opinions they dislike. That’s wrong for journalists. The journal risks setting a bad precedent with such practices, especially as hate speech laws evolve.
Apologies for rambling, but this issue matters.
@SirMr: Just call it what it is: censorship. The Journal is a nest of captured left-wing progressive types. The glasses they wear give the game away immediately. No doubt they’ll cop on in about 20 years, but by then, the damage that them and their ilk are doing to our country will be irreparable.
@Marjory: X and Meta have censorship
@Marjory: glasses are woke.
@SirMr: journalism is the last thing you get in the comments, when there is more trolling then real comments, it easier to close the comments then try to clean them up.
The laws in place say that a publisher needs to take reasonable steps to prevent liable etc and that could be closing the comments.
Think the journal should prevent multiple accounts from the same people, where they just reiterate the same lies
@SirMr: It’s infuriating!
@Marjory: if the journal is a “nest of left wing” types…. Isn’t that a dam sight better than if they were right? Imagine the drivel and bile we’d have to endure listening to a right wing agenda.
@Colm O’ Shea: I whole heartedly agree with you. Mostly here on wkds to read the extra information, the insights, opinions, debate etc from all you good commentors.
The multi trollers, however, really pull the whole thing down and worse, some of us along with them by reaction to their nonsense. For trollers (we all know who they are here), this is their only social outlet, so they likely can’t stop. Sometimes think, comments section should close completely due to this.
Of course, I’m following a bad example now being totally off topic. Seems unreal that child and passengers have perished after a likely successful operation. A terrible tragedy.
@Colm O’ Shea: The issue is: who decides what counts as a lie? Is it some long-haired guy with a nose piercing, sitting at a computer, deleting comments they consider false? Who gets to define hate speech or inappropriate content? That’s the real problem. People are inherently biased—it’s just human nature. Letting individuals with their own biases make these decisions raises concerns about democracy.
@Tired Jim: Strange that you still read it if that’s your overall opinion.!!!
@Colm O’ Shea: there are a lot of obvious tro l s. Accounts singing trump’s praises like he’s a Greek god are a huge give away. I just mute them. Don’t give them the oxygen they so blatantly need, attention seekers just like the orange man himself
@Tired Jim: Yet, here you are with your 6-8 multi profiles, 18 hrs a day because, let’s face it… you need help. Take that profile pic down, BTW. It’s perverse looking. ….
And … MUTE tired jim…also
@Marjory: Yet you are silent on right wing media that don’t allow differing opinions. If the Journal annoys you that much go to the alt right media where you can feel happy.
@Setanta O’Toole: Good. I’m happy to be woke ( and wear glasses)
@SirMr: “strategic distraction” or “media manipulation”.
“, but
more specifically, there are several key tactics used by tyrannical leaders to divert public attention:
1. Whataboutism – Deflecting criticism by accusing opponents of similar or unrelated faults (“But what about X?”).
2. Gaslighting – Denying reality or rewriting history to confuse the public.
3. Manufactured Crises – Creating or exaggerating an emergency to shift focus from scandals or failures.
4. Scapegoating – Blaming a marginalized group, foreign adversary, or internal enemies for society’s problems.
5. Flooding the Zone – Overwhelming media with a barrage of conflicting narratives, misinformation, or trivial distractions.
6. Dead Cat Strategy – Introducing a shocking or sensationalist story to make people forget about more serious issues.
7. Misdirection – Announcing or doing something seemingly unrelated but attention-grabbing right before bad news drops.
@Marjory: are you seriously saying that wearing glasses… determines your political stance??
@SirMr: Shut down because of the vile comments, you wouldn’t know that these people are adults and yet they’ll complain about the youth, a learned experienxe by them and then they play play the victim card. Or maybe it was shut down because the claim that Hazel Chu is far left is nonsense although the far right get very upset when called racists, bigots, Nazi’s or fascists, all extremely accurate claims about the far right but they know nothing about such things so they get offended, the hilarity. You aren’t saving us, you’re shaming us
@Tired Jim: So head over to Gript. It’s an echo chamber for you lot. Got a racist opinion ? Just let it out and you’re ensured thumbs up.
@Tired Jim: ah Jim’s getting annoyed cos his hateful Paisley comments got deleted earlier
@SirMr: just leave if you don’t like it. The journal is a private business, not public
@Marjory: “The glasses they wear” what a numpty!
@John Doe: The response of a child.
@Emit Relevart: have you never heard of cold reading? You can tell so much from a persons clothes hair style etc. why do you think psychics are still around today?
@Anne Dunne: I’m only woke when I’m driving.
@SirMr: Very accurate assessment, I would predict that many of the comments on the forum are also from some of the Journalists. It has a clear political bias & one article during the year by Carl Kinsella was so obviously biased, that anybody could see through it. The censoring of certain posts (which were clearly not offensive or ones that would invoke legal proceedings) whilst leaving certain posters continue supporting the narrative of the “journalistic piece”, was very evident & biased. I expect this post to be censored & removed as well.
@John Doe: too right, a lot of people disappointed that trump is now being blamed for what he used to blame Obama and Biden for. Timely reminder, Biden is no longer president and Obama hasn’t been president for nine years. trump and his supporters need to suck it up, what he does and says will be reported, and if they don’t like it, there are plenty of media where they sing trump’s praises that they can go to.
@Ted Daly: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” ….who decides what is truth?
@SirMr: it’s called controlling. They decide if you can comment or not. Where is free speech there week like RTE
@SirMr: Oh get over yourself Man. Innocent people have died. If you want everyone to hear your opinion, set up your own forum like a blog or whatever. Otherwise you’re just a grumpy narcissist. This is yet more devastating news. May the victims Rest in Peace x
@Be Lucky: Exactly. Anyone notice Mr T’s comment “Our people are totally engaged.”
Who’s he talking to? Red flag for me
@SirMr: I have.. but explain how glasses make a person “woke”??
People wear glasses out of necessity! How are they political??
Rip and condolences to their families
Tough week for the orange blimp
Second crash already. This wouldn’t have happened if Biden was president. Trump got rid of employees he considers to come from a DEI background AKA women, migrants, black people, disabled people. Now with tariffs about to increase prices and inflation on all Americans you will see even his republicans turn on him.
@F1rYnpWc: That is utter nonsense were exactly are you getting your information from mother of god
@SirMr: directly from trump’s social media. He has began getting rid of anyone from what he sees as a “dei” background in his sweeping pro-discrimination policies.
@F1rYnpWc: DEI getting rid of women? Black people? You’re way off base and totally wrong. Your dislike for Trump might cloud your judgment, but you’re mistaken. DEI has largely been seen as a flop, and I completely agree it should be scrapped. Pointing fingers at either the Biden or Trump administration for what aviation officials do is just plain silly.
@SirMr: i don’t think you read the post properly.
@Setanta O’Toole: I read it perfectly buachaill maith
@SirMr: he didn’t say DEI meant ‘getting rid of people’
@F1rYnpWc: that’s the type of thing I’d expect from a MAGA
@F1rYnpWc: what he says is different to what he’ll get done.. Most civil service jobs are protected (I hope)
He still has to get all this legislation through and there’s many a turn coat in the house.
@F1rYnpWc: I don’t approve of his position on DEI but I don’t think he could have sacked federal employees that quickly.
Let’s stop seeing everything through a partisan lens and focus on the victims of this tragedy.
@F1rYnpWc: 100% correct. In fact, he was taking credit for “improving the standard” of air traffic controllers….
@F1rYnpWc: Sharia boy spouting nonsense again. What a surprise.
@F1rYnpWc: You’re a horrible individual, sick actually, playing politics with the loss of lives. Your moral compass must be lodged somewhere up your hole.
@SV3tN8M4: You should see the US social media which has been on fire over Trump’s shutting down large sections of federal agencies, organisations, funding and the like.
The employees of these don’t know whether they will have a job tomorrow.
@SV3tN8M4: Irish Trump supporters claiming to be experts on what Trump is doing in the USA, tragic
What an awful accident. And there will be more fall out from this unfortunately. If trump hadn’t been so gleeful and spiteful about letting go of essential workers, nothing could be said about him. But now he’s in a position where he’s coming out pointing the finger of blame at everyone else, all because he feels threatened. And it’s all of his own making. The man isn’t qualified to run a supermarket, a job needing great organisation and people skills, never mind being president of the US.
@Fiona: it’s amazing that a fella can become president, get rid of thousands of jobs in his first two weeks, presumably affecting a lot of people that voted for him, and somehow people still praise him for it. To quote the late frank grimes: ‘Does everyone have some disease where they can’t see that he’s an i**ot!?’
@Setanta O’Toole: brilliant quote! Completely captures the scenario. Unfortunately we’re all gonna have to grapple with this for 4 years. TBH, I’m alot more sceptical than I was in Jan.2017…. and that was fairly sceptical then.
@Setanta O’Toole: my goodness, a poor little girl who just received life saving treatment was on her way home with her mother and the medics who were all there for her…..and here are people like you who have nothing better to do than try and score points and make it all about Trump….yet you all think really you’re morally superior…shows what kind of people you really are…shameful!
@Emer McDonnell: people are capable of feeling sympathy and questioning things at the same time Emer, not just when it suits them. You were on the other thread defending trump ranting and showing no empathy for the families of the other crash victims the other day. So, I guess that falls into the shameful category too.
@Setanta O’Toole: I was on the other threat regarding DEI and what he said….the DC accident was also obviously caused by human error whilst this looks like a technical one.
My point is the absolute tragedy of it all, what this girl and her family must have endured, thinking she would be ok only for this to happen….and that’s all I’m thinking about…not Trump or DEI! You’ve shown exactly what type of person you are…one full of hate and anger!
@Emer McDonnell: of course I have sympathy for the victims, and if you look to the first post I made I said I don’t blame trump. However, incidents like this highlight the important of aviation safety and the foolhardiness of making cuts to it, which does make me angry, as it is putting peoples lives in danger. Much like gun control, it shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We have seen dire consequences before when Trump has gutted federal agencies, and I hope I’m wrong, but I feel like this could continue the pattern in the future.
Has the Donnie lad offered any theories yet
@Gerry Ryan: ‘Far left aliens have arrived from another dimension. They’re trying to take your guns and they think they’re better at flying because they can cross bigglier distances. Well, they don’t even have a Trump Tower or University. No Trump Bibles either. My best people told me. Geniuses these guys. They are poisoning the blood of our aviation industry with their technology. They didn’t even offer me stocks. Nasty aliens. I’m going to build an inter-dimensional wall. Wait till you see it…’
‘Mr President, any thoughts on the crash where a child just died?’
@SerotoninWars:
Says the guy that’s written a whole lot of lefty nonsense that has nothing to do with the crash either…
@Regular John: Jaded and erroneous clichés + a total misunderstanding of the relationship between a little satire of the nonsensical replies we hear from Dear Leader, and real events. Like this weeks crashes. Try again.
@SerotoninWars: it says an awful lot about someone who tries to turn this terrible tragedy into a political anti Trump speech…shameful and horrible, and yet you like to lecture others who behave in such a manner! What a vindictive person you must be!
@Emer McDonnell: You don’t know what kind of person I am. You also haven’t fully read or understood my comments. That’s ok. Just spare a thought for context. Have a nice weekend :)
@SerotoninWars: Oh I think everyone knows what kind of person you are. Trump is president now, get over it and stop posting moronic comments on an article about a plane crash.
@SerotoninWars: how do you know you’re on the right side of an argument? When an account named Roddygroomerogorman and his “mates” are on the other side
@Kevin Kerr: Haha true! The other classic is ‘get over it’. Not once I have I seen it posted by anyone who had anything other than jaded sound bites and tropes they’ve been fed, by the Daily Mail, or whatever silly reactionary feeds they frequent.
@SerotoninWars: yes indeed, Trump won the election so we’re no longer allowed to critique, and he is beyond reproach – sounds, let’s say in case anyone gets offended, authoritarian!
@Kevin Kerr: Exactly! As an attempted conversation stopper it never manages to work. The logic is strange. If something has occurred, no further comment is allowed? Goodbye conversation I guess! The aul chats were great over the millennia, but we’ll just have to accept that the second anything happens, it’s immediately in the past, which we must ‘get over’!
@SerotoninWars: Kevin Kerr talking to himself!
@SerotoninWars:
I said “get over it ” to you because it’s very obvious that you can’t. You are here day and night posting about Trump on articles that have nothing to do with him too ! What’s wrong with you ??
You think you are clever with your poncey user name, in reality you just use these comments to try and feel superior to everyone else. I’d say you’re a real beta boy in real life, afraid to say boo to anyone.
As for your poncey mate Kevin, he knows what I think of him already. Grow a pair lads, you’re just embarrassing at this stage.
@Brian Hunt:
Did you notice how both Kevin and Brendan have been missing from here for the last while ? Hmmmm… Definitely the same account, I’m not sure about the Serotonin shitebag in fairness.
Anyone that posts a comment on this or the DC crash and blames a political figure needs to take a good hard look at themselves. People died and all you can do is take shots at someone you don’t like. I feel sorry for the lot of you
@Mick O’K: Years ago, I might have agreed with you. We live in a different world now. It doesn’t need explaining why and how these sort of incidents have become politicised. Blaming the average citizen for reacting to the statements and approach of the enormously powerful is unfair. You are looking in the wrong place and pointing fingers at the wrong people.
@SerotoninWars: Correct, shouts for ‘critical thinking’, yet unable to apply in their reasoning correlation or causality.
It’s the old Climate Change and Disappearance of Pirates all over again.
@Mick O’K: Yeah… you’re quite right man. Most of the comments on this article don’t relate to any condolences even. (My hand up, too, btw).
@SerotoninWars: don’t think so. Why stoop as low as the person you don’t like. Trump is wrong with his posts on the DC crash no doubt about that. And like I said everyone here who cannot spare a thought for the life’s lost are as bad
@j m m: trump complains about immigrants poisoning American blood. trump is the biggest poys. on in America right now, and it has even spread to other countries. Nine years ago, most comments would’ve been about the awful accident, now it’s all about how trump is somehow going to make it worse
@SerotoninWars: With the DC crash, Trump invited valid criticism by using it as a a policy thing blaming a group of people without any evidence. He hasn’t with this, yet, maybe because he can’t find a way to spin it.
@Mick O’K: You assume that people are not concerned about the sad passing of the people involved. I think you are wrong there. It only serves the interests of the extremely powerful and destructive individuals and forces that have been unleashed, to just ignore them.
Ignoring them won’t make them go away. It won’t improve anything or resurrect anyone. It might not add up to much in the end but every tiny piece of resistance and humanity you see posted, gives you a granule of hope that all is not lost, and the entire planet hasn’t lost its mind or moral compass.
@Athena: Absolutely. Straight to blaming the regular citizens for reacting in a certain way without going to the source. People aren’t pointing these things out for no reason! Maybe just maybe the gibberish, maliciousness and utter ineptitude of the most powerful person on the planet had something to do with the way some of us peasants and ‘losers’ are reacting.
@SerotoninWars: trump is in ept, along with malicious and sp it efu l. You’d run a mile from him if you met him in your street. I hope American citizens will wake up, and run him out of office, just like they ran the English out
@Fiona: Agree with you for the most part.
But surely “running the English out” was one of the worst mistakes American have made?
The US could be like Canada now, which is strides ahead in things that matter.
Beyond tragic
Absolutely heartbreaking and so tragic, her poor poor family who I’m sure were delighted that after everything she had been through she had successful treatment and was on her way home only for this absolute horrific tragedy to befall on her and the other passengers and crew ( including her Mother and 2 doctors), it’s just heartbreaking.
I read all the comments and I feel it’s sad that the poor little child who died may have gone through a crueling time and what should have been a happy trip home ended in death Are we so interested in politics that lives don’t matter any more Rest in peace all who perished in both crashes you all meant something to someone
January 20: Trump & Musk push out FAA Administrator. A replacement isn’t named. January 20: Trump implements hiring freeze, including Air Traffic Controllers. January 21: Trump disbands Aviation Security Advisory Committee. January 29: First passenger airline collision in 16 years. If Biden had axed hundreds of FAA officials, fired the TSA chief, froze air traffic controller hiring & then we had *multiple* planes falling out of the sky in a **single week** — the articles of impeachment would already be drawn up.
There’ll be a thorough investigation and hopefully the truth will out. Armchair investigators only twist things to suit their narrative. A sad loss of life. May these unfortunate souls RIP
Horrible accidents in the few days . But what I’m shocked at is the so called American experts on here . If you all put the same effort in to Ireland it might be a better place.
@Oweke 68: The effort put in by the “American experts on here” might go some way to preventing us degenerating into the US.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere:
degenerating?
Really!! Ireland isn’t too shy about accepting American money and good paying jobs in the form of American corporate taxes that fill your coffers. The hatred for all things America and Americans in general one sees on this platform in the comments section about any American story is a real eye opener.
Saw footage of it very sad
So damned sad. Treated and on the way home. All that hope for the future snuffed out.
Unlike Europe, this type of aircraft can be flown with 1 qualified pilot and a copilot who may only have a license but not a rating on the type.
There are no new accidents, only old ones waiting to be repeated. I feel for all the families involved, I did air ambulance here for years and it’s a bitter sweet mission sometimes, but no one ever wants an outcome like this. RIP
Trump will blame the dwarf
President Musk smart efficiencies
1st off condolences absolutely. BWTF is going on ? 2 incidents already, 3 near disasters before Christmas in Sweden and Denmark. Putting my silver hat on !
@Brian O’Connor: Hitler blamed the Jews. Trump blaming diversity. Seems wrong right? Last time I read history book it reads along same lines. Parliament was burned in Germany in mysterious circumstances, (planes in this instance, as it represents freedom) yet here we are today in repetition of history. Strange that.
@Brian O’Connor: and deportations ?
@Brian O’Connor: And Communists were blamed and convicted for the burning of the Reichstag when it was the Nazi’s.
@Brian O’Connor: yes, using planes instead of trains
Looks like someone trying to prove a point CIA style
@Kevin O Brien: I don’t think trump will be able to blame them. He knows he’d make a powerful enemy if he pointed the finger at them, so he only points the finger at people who can’t fight back. Bully boy tactics.
Thank you trump
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