The impact area where a medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia last week will hopefully reopen on Wednesday, according to city officials.
Adam Thiel, the city’s managing director, said during a news briefing Tuesday that the National Transportation Safety Board has finished its work at the site. He also said the city will move its forensic investigation efforts from the area as well, moves that will allow cleanup efforts to begin.
“We can start to restore the area of this tragic incident back to activity,” Thiel said. “I won’t say normalcy, because that is going to take much longer.”
Thiel said crews from several city agencies will be working overnight to make sure streets are clean of debris in hopes of having most businesses in the area reopen as of Wednesday morning and allow most area residents to return to their homes.
“We really want to make sure that we’re going to be able to, as daylight comes, hopefully, start to get everybody into that area,” Thiel said.
The crash Friday evening killed all six people on the Learjet 55 air ambulance, including a girl who had been receiving medical treatment at Shriners Children's Philadelphia hospital. A seventh person inside a vehicle was killed on the ground, while 24 people on the ground were injured. Officials reiterated Tuesday that the number of casualties may change as the investigation continues.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said the plane had been taking Valentina Guzmán Murillo, 11, and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, 31, home to Mexico. It plummeted within a minute of taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport. Jet Rescue identified its team members as Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, 41; the captain, Alan Montoya Perales, 46; the copilot, Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, 43; and paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, 41.
Valentina had recently completed treatment for a condition not easily treated in Mexico, hospital officials have said.
Debris from the crash exploded into a fireball, and pieces of the plane were blown into the residential and commercial Castor Gardens neighborhood, severely damaging several businesses. City officials said four homes were destroyed, six sustained major damage and 11 were otherwise damaged.