In the Northeast Philly neighborhood where a plane went down, ‘nothing ... will ever be normal again’

A sense of uneasiness and disarray hung over a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood Sunday, two days after an airplane plummeted into a busy street, killing at least seven people, injuring 22 others, and spewing wreckage for blocks.

In the densely populated residential area, 11 homes and an untold number of businesses were damaged. Churches were closed Sunday; so was the nearby mall. Buses were diverted, and people were trapped in their rowhouses, some in too much despair to leave their blocks.

“It’s all so unusual,” said Nicole Geraldo, who lives nearby. “I just keep thinking about [it]. Can’t get it out of my head.”

» READ MORE: LIVE UPDATES: Follow here for the latest developments on the Northeast Philadelphia plane crash

Geraldo’s home neighborhood is now the scene of a sprawling and complex investigation spanning at least six blocks. Investigators located the jet’s missing cockpit voice recorder Sunday and were still finding parts of the medical transport plane blocks away. Some were undertaking the grisly task of processing the body parts of victims that were found at the scene.

City officials attempted to quell the anguish Sunday, offering damage assessments to businesses, providing mental health supports to those traumatized by what they saw, and planning a town hall event for Wednesday evening. State officials who seemed on the verge of tears described the mighty Northeast as ready to rebuild.

”We have to remember what defines Philadelphia,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said during a news conference Sunday. “We are a strong people, a resilient people, who clearly understand how and why it’s so important that we take care of each other.”

» READ MORE: Aerial views show a gaping crater at site of Northeast Philly plane crash

But even top officials were still trying to understand the breadth of the impact — studying everything from the scope of the tragedy to the effect on the city’s bottom line and whether officials have the resources they need to rebuild.

Local, state, and federal investigators were still working to understand why the plane went down just minutes after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport on Friday. The National Transportation Safety Board was still processing mountains of evidence.

Emergency personnel said five people remained hospitalized Sunday as a result of their injuries, with three of them in critical condition. One was 10-year-old Andre “Trey” Howard, who was struck in the head by debris, the boy’s parents said in social media posts and an interview with 6abc.

But officials couldn’t specify how many people were missing or if the death toll would rise, in part due to the complexity of processing the scene. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in an interview investigators were still questioning victims and witnesses, and poring over evidence.

“This is a huge area,” he said, adding: “Nothing in that area will ever be normal again.”

The six citizens of Mexico who were aboard the plane were identified Sunday, including Valentina Guzmán Murillo, an 11-year-old who had spent four months undergoing treatment for a medical condition at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia. Her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, 31, was also killed, according to Claudia Agatón Muñiz, the mayor of Ensenada, a coastal town near Tijuana, who shared their names on social media.

Valentina and her mother had just left the hospital hours before the crash, after being celebrated by staff who say the girl had developed a special bond with her health-care workers after months of receiving care for an unspecified spinal condition that was difficult to treat in Mexico.

» READ MORE: LIVEBLOG: Follow our continuing coverage of the medical jet crash in Northeast Philadelphia

The four crew members were each identified as men who worked with the Jet Rescue Air Ambulance for multiple years, according to a spokesperson for the company.

Alan Montoya Perales, 46, had been flying with Jet Rescue since 2016, and was the captain of the flight that crashed Friday, company spokesman Shai Gold said. His copilot was Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, 43, who joined the company in December 2023.

Raul Meza Arredonda, 41, was the doctor aboard the flight, and he has worked with the company since 2020. And Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, 41, was the paramedic onboard — an employee since 2023, according to Gold.

Family and friends on social media identified the seventh victim as a 37-year-old father from Mount Airy. The Inquirer is not naming him because police have not publicly identified him, and his relatives asked that his name not be shared so as to maintain their privacy. His loved ones, overwhelmed with grief, declined to speak Sunday.

Other impacts were still being assessed. For example, city officials couldn’t say how many people were displaced from their homes. Some were beginning to return Sunday, but Managing Director Adam Thiel said it’s possible there are people “who were affected by this event that we don’t know about.”

Six people were housed in a shelter operated by the city and the Red Cross over the weekend, but others were likely staying elsewhere with loved ones.

Moura Joselyn, whose family of seven was staying with a relative, said they left after the incident because their utilities had been shut off. He came back to his home on nearby Rupert Street to gather some belongings on Saturday evening, but said his family wasn’t ready to return.

“I have a 4-year-old. She doesn’t want to come back home anymore,” Joselyn said. “She cries and says she doesn’t want to hear the sirens.”

For those who stayed, it was unclear how they’d navigate the area to get to work and school. Some had cars destroyed; others couldn’t retrieve their vehicles that were parked inside a secure perimeter.

Raúl Vasquez and his 12-year-old grandson, Marlon, were able to leave to get groceries for the first time Sunday morning after being in their home “so scared” Friday night. But without a vehicle, they were only able to carry bread, cookies, milk, and eggs — “enough for breakfast,” Marlon said.

And Elizabeth Rodriguez, who lives a few blocks from the crash site but has family members who live closer, said they were worried about how children would get to their school, which is about an eight-minute drive away, if they couldn’t move their vehicles.

“They can’t have them walking so long in this cold,” Rodriguez said while tightening her jacket in the sub-40-degree temperatures.

Amid the unease, there was, at least, a sense of community. Family members visited their loved ones; residents brought sustenance to investigators and police.

“If there’s two things that we are in Northeast Philadelphia, we’re hard workers and we’re fighters,” said State Rep. Sean Dougherty, who represents the area. “And we will work and fight to rebuild, maintain, improve, and support our neighbors.”

At the corner of Cottman and Bustleton Avenues, two sisters set up a makeshift memorial of seven candles in honor of the victims, complete with pink and white star balloons and a home-printed Mexican flag.

”We are not from Mexico, but we had to do something for them,” said Keisha Lopez, a native of Puerto Rico who struggled to hold back tears.

Her sister, Glorimar Santiago, added: “They are someone’s family, just like you and me. They could have been our family.”