Today's Edition
Washington (dpa)
A second plane crash in the United States in two days - this time in a busy north-east area of Philadelphia - resulted in the deaths of all six people on board, the office of the city's mayor said in a statement published on Saturday.
The plane, a private Learjet 55 medical aircraft, crashed in Philadelphia one minute after taking off from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Missouri on Friday evening, the city's Mayor Cherelle Parker and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) explained in statements.
Friday's crash follows Wednesday's collision in Washington between an American Airlines passenger plane carrying 64 people and a military helicopter with three crewmen that authorities say killed all 67.
The medical aircraft that crashed on Friday was carrying a young girl who had been treated at a children's hospital in Philadelphia, her mother and four crew members, the mayor's office said.
All six were Mexican nationals, the Mexican Foreign Ministry confirmed on X.
The crash occurred in a city of 1.5 million people in a busy north-east neighbourhood surrounded by shops, apartment buildings and heavy traffic.
"Many people on the ground - in parking lots, on streets, in cars and homes in the area - were injured," the mayor's office said in its statement.
Philadelphia Mayor said that at least one other person, who was in a car, had also been killed, and that 19 people had been wounded.
The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
Pictures from several US television stations showed a large explosion.
"Our prayers are with the families, friends, neighbors and everyone affected by this tragedy. Several dwellings and vehicles were impacted as well," Parker said.
New find in Washington crash
In the meantime, emergency services have found the flight data recorder of the military helicopter involved in Wednesday's Washington crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash.
The voice recorder was a combined cockpit voice and digital flight data recorder.
The black boxes of the crashed passenger aircraft had already been recovered.
Experts hope that the evaluation of the data will provide insights into the cause of the accident. So far, there are no indications of criminal activity or terrorism.
