NTSB finishes on-site work after Philly plane crash; Roosevelt Mall to reopen tomorrow

The section of Northeast Philadelphia where a medical transport jet crashed Friday is expected to reopen to residents and businesses as soon as Wednesday after days of investigation into the fiery catastrophe, which killed seven people and injured 24 others.

“We’ll be working literally through the night to clean the streets, to ensure that we have done thorough damage assessment on all the infrastructure,” Philadelphia Managing Director Adam K. Thiel said Tuesday at a news conference. “We really want to make sure that we’re going to be able to, as daylight comes, hopefully start to get everybody back into that area.”

The National Transportation Safety Board has wrapped up the on-site phase of its investigation, Thiel said, and the Philadelphia Police Department, which is leading the forensics investigation, has also concluded its work at the scene.

The American Red Cross said people who may need assistance in the aftermath of the Northeast Philadelphia plane crash can visit the Red Cross office at 1401 Rhawn St. on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., an organization spokesperson said.

Red Cross resources also will be available Wednesday night at the plane-crash town hall at Solomon Solis-Cohen Elementary School, 7001 Horrocks St., said Alana Mauger, spokesperson for the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania. The event begins at 7 p.m.

The Red Cross also can be contacted at 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767.)

The National Transportation Safety Board has finished its work at the Northeast Philadelphia plane crash site, city Managing Director Adam Thiel said.

As a result, the agency either has left Philadelphia, or will be departing the city soon, Thiel added.

Philadelphia authorities will also move their forensic investigation efforts off-site as well, Thiel said. Moving ongoing investigations out of the area of the crash will allow clean-up efforts to begin.

At the corner of Cottman and Bustleton Avenues, all was quiet Tuesday afternoon, save for the few sights and sounds that marked the tragedy of the plane crash that took the lives of seven people and injured at least 24 others.

On the corner, facing the blocked-off crash site and the federal agents still examining the scene, Texas muralist Roberto Marquez, 62, created a large canvas to paint his mural dedicated to the victims of the Jan. 31 crash, which he plans to set up next to the makeshift memorial he built Monday night. Others had arrived to help him by propping up wooden crosses and leaving floral arrangements.

Steps away, Maria Serna, a longtime resident of Northeast Philadelphia, stopped all those who passed to ask them to attend a vigil scheduled for Wednesday night at the memorial.

On Sunday, artist Roberto Marquez was around 150 miles from Philadelphia, in Arlington County, Va. There, the mural artist from Dallas, Texas, decided to build a memorial to the people killed when a passenger jet collided with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., last Wednesday.

The artist put up 67 crosses at Gravelly Point, near the crash site, one for each person killed in the crash.

Two days later, Marquez, 62, found himself on the corner of Cottman and Bustleton Avenues, in Northeast Philadelphia, steps away from where a small medical plane fell from the sky, smashing into Cottman Avenue.

Some Philadelphia police officers who responded to the scene of the plane crash Friday night have reported trouble breathing and issues with their eyes, according to the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5.

Four officers have reported pain in their lungs and stinging in their eyes after inhaling smoke and other burning substances at the scene, said Roosevelt Poplar, president of the local police union. One officer was hospitalized after inhaling smoke, but is stable, Polar said.

The union sent out a memo to members on Tuesday encouraging any officers who were at the scene and are experiencing health issues to file a report and get checked out. He said the union opened its headquarters on Tuesday and is providing counselors and mental-health support.

Susan Usilton, of the 7200 block of Leonard Street, had just come back home from the Acme across Cottman Avenue when she saw a “big red ball” of light and heard an explosion. When she came out, Usilton said, she saw cars up in flames and a person she believed was dead on Cottman Avenue.

The small medical transport plane that crashed Friday landed steps away from Usilton’s home, killing all six people on board and a seventh person who was on the ground. At least 24 people were injured by the crash, officials said.

Officials said the number of casualties may change as the investigation continues.

High Point Cafe is raising funds for one of its employees, who they say was critically injured as a result of Friday's plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia, according to a GoFundMe organized by the High Point community.

Dominique Goods-Burke, a day bake supervisor at the cafe, which has two locations in Mount Airy, was at the Roosevelt Mall when the medical jet struck, causing her car to catch fire. As a result, she is "in critical condition but ... responding well to the medication and treatment,“ according to the plea.

The organizers of the fundraiser pledged to reach out to her family "to help us support her home and kids while she is fighting to get better. The family is attempting to come together to keep a level of normalcy in Dominique's children's lives (15 years old and 6 years old) while they grieve and process this trauma.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro began his 2025 budget address by acknowledging both the celebration and tragedy in occurring Philadelphia.

In nearly the same breath, Shapiro celebrated the Eagles' second visit to the Super Bowl in two years and acknowledged the tragic plane crash that took seven lives in Northeast Philly last weekend.

“Right now in Northeast Philly people are walking around in the Eagles green, excited about the Super Bowl while at the same time trying to process the horror of what happened on Cottman Avenue on Friday night,” he said.

With Roosevelt Boulevard reopened near Cottman Avenue, traffic along the perimeter of the site of the plane crash has picked up, but there are still several streets that remain closed.

Bleigh Avenue, to the north of the crash site, was open to traffic all the way up to Calvert Street, right ahead of where Bleigh Avenue meets Roosevelt Boulevard.

St. Vincent Street, which is south of the crash site, was open to traffic, though side streets — including Rupert, Leonard, and Hanford Streets — until Bustleton Avenue are closed to traffic. 

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a photo of the cockpit voice recorder investigators recovered Sunday night from the crash site.

The voice recorder — which a board spokesperson said would contain key evidence to help piece together what happened in the moments leading up to Friday night's plane crash — was located in a crater formed from the initial impact, 8 feet down.

The Learjet 55 cockpit voice recorder was originally orange, according to a spokesperson.

As the sun rose over Bustleton and Cottman Avenues shortly after 7 a.m., showering the busy intersection in orange, the morning scene was much like any other day, but undeniably different.

People hopped on and off at the corner bus stop, in a rush to get to work. Groups of teenagers walked by, talking and laughing as they savored the last few minutes before class. Drivers stopped at the traffic light honked their horns, annoyed they missed a green light.

But steps away, stark reminders of the fatal plane crash that has shaken Philadelphia and whose tragedy reverberated across the nation and made its way to Mexico were visible.

As a younger man, Josué de Jesús Juarez Juarez, 43, had a passion for salsa music, and the dancing that came with it. But his real dream, his longtime friend Ruben Perez said, was always to be up in the sky.

In the salsa clubs of Veracruz, Mexico, Perez, 44, and Juarez became good friends quickly more than 20 years ago, Perez said in Spanish. The two would spend time dancing in the clubs, going to see concerts, he said.

Their friendship, Perez said, was effortless, as they got to know each other and soon bonded over another mutual passion: aviation. Perez, who is almost exactly one year older than Juarez, used to work at an airport in Veracruz and post photos of the planes and the cockpits, he said.

The first police officers arrived minutes after the plane fell from the sky.

“It landed on the plaza there,” an officer called over his radio. “The plane that landed crashed into the plaza!”

“Stuff’s still blowin’ up!” another yelled. Sirens and screams echoed in the background.

More than 300 homes were affected — and four destroyed entirely — by Friday’s deadly plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia, officials said Monday as the extent of the disaster came into focus even as questions remained about what caused the crash and who will pay for recovery effort.

Walking amid the debris, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker toured the crash site together, received briefings from investigators, and held a news conference to reassure the neighborhood around Cottman Avenue and the Roosevelt Boulevard that help is on the way.

But it remained unclear what government resources will be available to homeowners and businesses affected by the crash, which killed seven people and injured 24. (Officials have cautioned that casualty numbers are still in flux as the investigation unfolds and people continue to report missing loved ones.)