Pictures have revealed the inside of a medical jet before it crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven and leaving 22 others injured.
The plane was carrying Valentina Guzman Murillo, 11, and her mother Lizeth Murillo Ozuna, 31, when it crashed on Friday night.
The Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air, contained a stretcher and medical equipment, with four seats next to them. A company spokesperson told Fox News it was a “flying ICU setting”.
The plane was headed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri and then Tijuana, Mexico. It crashed at around 6:30pm shortly after departure.
Valentina and Lizeth were headed back home after the young girl received months of treatment at Shriners Children’s Hospital for a condition that couldn’t be easily treated in Mexico.
The medevac jet managed to climb to roughly 1,500 feet before crashing into the ground. The cockpit voice recorder, or “black box”, was found 8ft below ground where the jet crashed but remarkably in “decent shape”, sources told 6ABC.
Both of its engines were also discovered, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, along with its enhanced ground proximity warning, which could contain flight data.
The components will be evaluated at a lab in Washington DC and the wreckage will be examined at a secure location in Delaware.
Audio from air traffic control revealed the plane was told twice to turn right when taking off before the pilot was asked “what frequency” they were on.
After hearing an unintelligible noise come from what’s believed to be the cockpit, an air traffic controller asked, “What’s going on down there?”
A dispatcher responded: “We have a lost aircraft. We’re not exactly sure what happened. We’re trying to figure it out. For now, the field is going to be closed.”
The four others onboard have been identified as pilot Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales, co-pilot Josué Juárez of Veracruz, Dr Raúl Meza Arredondo, and paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla.
The seventh victim, who remains unidentified, was killed while inside a car after debris from the jet smashed into the neighbourhood and damaged homes.
