A second plane has crashed in the US this week, killing six, a fare system change for Auckland Transport, and a warning for those encountering marine mammals in the latest NZ Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
The crash – the second major aviation disaster in the United States this week– occurred on Friday when the twin-engine Learjet 55 plummeted towards a busy Philadelphia neighbourhood, exploding on impact and showering wreckage over homes and vehicles.
The aftermath of destruction is seen outside the Roosevelt Mall after an air ambulance carrying six people crashed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo / via Getty Images
Officials had earlier said all six on board – a 6-year-old girl who had been in the United States for life-saving medical care, her mother, and members of the flight and medical crews with her – were killed. They were all Mexican nationals.
On Saturday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said at least one other person, who was in a car, had also been killed, and 19 people had been wounded.
Speaking at a press conference, Parker warned the toll was “not etched in stone” and could yet rise.
“We have a lot of unknowns about who was where on the streets of this neighbourhood last night at the time of impact,” said the city’s managing director Adam Thiel, warning it could be days before the full toll emerged.
He said the impact area covered four to six blocks, and there was also debris in a “remote area where something happened with the aircraft”.
HAPPENING NOW🚨: This morning, investigators including the FBI Evidence Response Team, ATF, NTSB, FAA, and the Philadelphia Police Crime Scene Unit, gathered at the site outside Roosevelt Mall to investigate and gather evidence following a small plane crash in Philadelphia,… pic.twitter.com/bKWx19QBzt
The jet, with 64 people on board, was landing at Reagan National Airport in the Washington area – just miles from the White House – when it collided with a US Army helicopter on a training mission.
