Updated February 01, 2025 at 18:34 PM ET
Investigators are in search of remaining aircraft pieces from the small plane that plummeted near a Philadelphia shopping center on Friday night, killing all six people aboard and one person on the ground.
On Saturday evening, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said authorities have recovered the two engines from the aircraft, but the voice recorder from the cockpit, commonly called a black box, remains missing.
"We are still looking for it. It could be  intact but likely it is very — it is damaged. It may be fragmented," she said at a press conference.
Homendy added that authorities can still complete their investigation without the recording device, but it is a critical piece and its location remains "the biggest question right now." She also said the aircraft's black box was the color orange.
On Friday night, a medical transport jet carrying a child patient, the child's mother, two medical personnel and two pilots — all Mexican nationals — crashed around 6:30 p.m. ET, shortly after taking off from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The plane was en route to Missouri.
One person inside a car at the time of the crash was also killed, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed at a press conference earlier on Saturday.
Parker added that at least 19 people were injured, though she did not say how many were in critical condition. The number of victims in the crash may change in the coming days, according to the city's managing director, Adam Thiel.
"This is still a very active and fluid situation," Thiel said at the press conference. "It will likely be days or more until we are able to definitively answer the question about the number of folks who perished in this tragedy and the outcome for those who are injured."
The crash took place near Roosevelt Mall, which is less than four miles from the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. the plane was in the air for only a minute before it plummeted to the ground.
Eyewitnesses described seeing an explosion in the shape of a mushroom cloud, member station WHYY . While videos and photos of the aftermath showed a long stretch of a Philadelphia neighborhood in flames and covered in debris. Five fires erupted following the crash and have since been extinguished, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said Saturday.
Thiel said the area of impact was roughly four to six blocks, but debris was widespread and authorities are still assessing what areas were affected.
"It's possible that if you are somewhere not even near here, somewhere between this location and Northeast Airport, you may go out and find something in your yard," he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will be leading the investigation.
What we know about the victims on the aircraft
All six people aboard the plane were Mexican nationals, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, confirmed in a .
The child patient had finished treatment for an illness at Shriners Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and was returning to her home country, according to .
The six people were flying in a Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which specializes in air ambulances across Mexico, Latin America and the U.S.
Shai Gold, the spokesperson for Jet Rescue, told NPR that the company was contracted by a third-party charitable organization to bring the child home to Tijuana, Mexico.
Among those on board were a pilot, copilot, doctor and paramedic, Gold added. No names will be released until all the families have been notified, the company .
On Friday night, President Trump also expressed his condolences to the victims of the crash.
"So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged. First Responders are already being given credit for doing a great job. More to follow. God Bless you all," he wrote on .
The crash came just two days after 67 people were killed in a between American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C. That crash is considered the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in over two decades.
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