The families of two victims killed when an air ambulance exploded into a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the aircraft was dangerously old, poorly maintained, and never should have been flying, according to the documents obtained by Daily Voice on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
1983 Learjet ‘Should Not Have Been In Service,’ Families Say
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on Monday, Nov. 17, by the estates of Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, a pediatrician, and Lizeth Murillo Osuna, the mother of Valentina Guzman Murillo, a child patient being flown home to Mexico after treatment in Philadelphia. Both were among the six people onboard the Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, when it crashed shortly after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport on Friday, Jan. 31.
“This antiquated aircraft was built in 1983 and should not have been in service,” the families said in the 76-page complaint, filed in Eastern District Court. “Defendants knew, or should have known, that the aircraft was unsafe to operate.”
‘Explosion Engulfed Vehicles, Homes, And Bystanders’
About one minute after takeoff, the plane plunged into a neighborhood near Roosevelt Mall, bursting into flames upon impact. The lawsuit says the crash created “a massive explosion that engulfed multiple vehicles and houses and sent fiery debris raining down on terrified and helpless bystanders.”
The flight path
Courtesy of the federal lawsuit against Jet Rescue Air Ambulance
All six passengers and crew members aboard were killed: pilot Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales, co-pilot Josue de Jesus Juarez Juarez, flight paramedic Rodrigo Lopez Padilla, and Dr. Arredondo, as well as Osuna and her daughter.
Two people on the ground also died: Steven Dreuitt, a father from Philadelphia, and his partner Dominique Goods-Burke, a High Point Café baker and mother of three. Goods-Burke died three months later after suffering severe burns.
The crash
Courtesy of the federal lawsuit against Jet Rescue Air Ambulance
The crash injured 24 people, many seriously, and damaged 343 homes as Daily Voice previously reported.
Defendants Named In Suit
The families are suing Med Jets, S.A. de C.V., the Guadalajara-based parent company of Jet Rescue, and several unnamed defendants involved in the aircraft’s design, manufacture, maintenance, repair, inspection, supervision, and control…