One year after the Northeast Philly plane crash, ‘eerie,’ ‘devastating’ scene still strong in neighbors’ memories

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Kimberly Casasola, a senior clerk at Frank Van’s Auto Tags, had just left work for the day on Jan. 31, 2025, when she got a panicked phone call from one of her two employees still at the office.

Within five minutes, Casasola returned to the office and was met with a “traumatic” scene after a medical jet crashed just blocks away.

“The fire, the people on fire, body parts, body fluids,” she recalled. “It was very devastating.”

Now, a year later, Casasola and other neighborhood residents are remembering the deadly crash, which killed eight people and injured more than 20 others.

The small plane, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, crashed in the heavily populated neighborhood near Roosevelt Mall less than a minute after take off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

The medical jet was transporting 11-year-old Valentina Guzmán Murillo, who had received medical treatment in Philadelphia, along with her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, and four crew members: Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, Alan Montoya Perales, Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez and Rodrigo López Padilla. All six were from Mexico and were killed in the crash.

Carlos Obrador, head consul at the Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia, said he was able to accompany the victims’ remains when they were repatriated to their families in April last year.

He applauded city officials and first responders for their “solidarity” and support, and said he is still in touch with the victims’ families in Mexico with updates on the ongoing investigation into the crash.

Dominique Goods-Burke died in April 2025 from injuries she sustained after debris from the plane hit her car. She was with her fiancé, Steven Dreuitt, who was also killed.

According to city officials, 343 homes in the neighborhood were affected by the crash.

Two families of the passengers killed on the medical jet filed a lawsuit last year alleging “carelessness” and “negligence” by the plane’s owner.

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the voice recorder, or “black box,” on board was not recording audio at the time of the crash. The full investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Obrador, Mayor Cherelle Parker, Philadelphia officials and community members will gather for a memorial service at the Engine 71 Fire Station on Saturday night near the site of the crash.

Northeast Philadelphia residents recall ‘eerie’ scene

In the year since the crash, Casasola said the business has received “a lot of community support,” with customers reaching out. The store was closed for three weeks after the crash because they had to make repairs to the building.

“The door blew in. The floors were damaged. We had part of the jet plane inside,” she said. “Here there were bodies laid out in the front of the office, so that all had to be removed and cleaned out. We had to change air conditioner units …. The upstairs also got a lot of [damage]. Windows got blown up … so yeah, it’s pretty bad.”

Casasola said the two employees that were in the office at the time of the crash were traumatized, and it took time for them to feel safe coming back to the office to work. But, she said that she was glad the other employees made it out safely, and thinks “the damage could have been a lot worse.”

“People-wise, we didn’t have anyone in the waiting room, which was great, because they would have gotten also hurt,” she said.

Other residents in the neighborhood recalled the “eerie” night of the crash.

“Me and my mom were walking to the store, and all we seen was the smoke in the sky,” said Amaya Rose, 18, who lives in the neighborhood near Roosevelt Boulevard. “And all I could think about is something just didn’t seem right.”

Rose, who has been working at Asad’s Hot Chicken at the corner of Roosevelt Boulevard and Cottman Avenue since June 2025, said the months after the crash were “eerie.”

“Nobody really wanted to be around here, closed off for a good amount of time,” she said. “But over time, everybody completely forgot about it, but that still stuck with me a lot.”

Kamil Scewczak was in bed, sick with COVID-19, at his home at Cottman and Hawthorne. He recalled noticing that the sky was red, and he thought it was the sunset for a moment. But then he heard a boom.

“My first thought was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s like a terrorist attack or something,’” he said.

An alert on mobile app Citizen informed him it was a plane crash.

Szewczak immediately started calling family and friends in the neighborhood to make sure they were OK.

“It’s also just so eerie, because it’s like, if the plane literally just fell … five blocks that way, who knows what would have happened. If it fell that way, one of my friends could have been hurt,” he said.

Szewczak said people in the neighborhood don’t talk much about the crash now. For community members, they know where the crash happened, but now, “you wouldn’t know where it’s at,” he said.

“The businesses have reopened up,” Szewczak said. “It’s just weird almost, that there’s not something here to commemorate it.”