The victims who were tragically killed in an air ambulance crash in Philadelphia have now been identified.
The devastating crash happened on Friday, just blocks from Roosevelt Mall, the three-story shopping mall in a densely populated part of the city, filled with homes and shops.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Learjet 55 had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport at 6.06 PM local time, heading to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri.
The plane had been carrying a child who’d been treated at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia and was due to stop in Missouri before carrying on to Tijuana, where she and her family were from.
It then quickly vanished from radar after climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet, and was reportedly only airborne for around 40 seconds before falling from the sky.
Footage from the scene showed a mushroom-shaped fireball shooting into the sky as the plane impacted the ground in the densely populated area.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L Parker confirmed during a news conference on Saturday that there were no survivors from the six people on board the aircraft, and one person who was in a car nearby had also died in the incident. A further 19 people were taken to local hospitals.
The six people on board the air ambulance, all of whom were Mexican nationals, have now been identified.
A spokesman for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance shared the identities of the victims to CBS as Captain Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales, co-pilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, Doctor Raul Meza Arredondo, Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, Valentina Guzman Murillo, and Lizeth Murillo Ozuna.
The seventh victim, who was in the car, has not yet been named.
An investigation is currently underway to establish the cause of the crash, with the incident having been caught on multiple security cameras in the area.
Authorities are also still assessing the extent of the damage to the residential area, with many properties having lost power in the wake of the accident, with city officials stating that at least 11 properties had sustained significant damage.
The tragedy occurred just two day after a deadly mid-air collision between a Black Hawk military helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet in Washington DC.
The two aircraft collided near Reagan National Airport, with both landing in the Potomac River, and all 64 people on board the plane and three soldiers on the helicopter being killed in the incident.
