Gov. Josh Shapiro thanks firefighters who responded to Philly plane crash: 'You guys literally saved lives'

David Gambacorta and Aliya Schneider, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 10, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday visited a Northeast Philadelphia fire station whose members rallied as part of the all-hands-on-deck emergency response to a deadly Jan. 31 plane crash that left a deep trail of grief and trauma in its wake.

A medical transport Learjet 55 plunged from the sky moments after it had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia airport shortly after 6 that evening, and slammed into Cottman Avenue, next to the Roosevelt Mall.

Engine 71, at Cottman and Loretto Avenues, sits about a half mile from the crash site; the station’s firefighters were among the first emergency workers to reach the scene.

“I was here that night and I saw the devastation, and I think unless you were here you don’t appreciate the amount of jet fuel that was scattered across the area, the amount of debris from the airplane, just the sheer devastation,” Shapiro said while visiting the station.

“And you guys literally saved lives that night by running toward danger, and I just so appreciate you.”

The plane’s six occupants — including an 11-year-old girl, Valentina Guzmán Murillo, who had spent four months undergoing treatment for a spinal condition at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia — were killed. (Valentina and her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, were being flown back to their home in Mexico.)

Some pieces of the plane had smashed into homes, which sat burning.

Flames also engulfed a car that was driven by Steven Dreuitt Jr., killing the 37-year-old Mount Airy father, and critically injuring Dreuitt’s fiancée, Dominique Goods-Burke. Dreuitt’s 9-year-old son, Ramesses Raziel Dreuitt Vazquez, escaped from the car, but suffered burns to more than 90% of his body, and is being treated at a Boston hospital that specializes in caring for pediatric burn victims.

At least 22 other bystanders were also injured, including 10-year-old Andre “Tre” Howard III, who used his body to protect his younger sister from a piece of debris that ricocheted through their father’s car. Howard suffered a severe head injury, and later underwent surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

At Engine 71 on Monday, Shapiro recalled being struck by the sight of Northeast Philly neighbors helping one another the night of the crash.

He shook hands with some firefighters, and joked with others.

Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics are too often taken for granted, he said, “and I want them to know that they’re appreciated.”

Carl Randolph, a fire deputy commissioner for logistics, managed how the department responded to the crash. In years past, Randolph assisted other agencies grappling with public disasters, including a 2021 condominium building collapse in Florida that left 98 people dead.

“This plane crash stands out more than anything else I’ve ever responded to, because of the sheer devastation in a very urban setting,” he said Monday.

“I think we are blessed that it wasn’t more devastating.”

Randolph, who is also a member of the Pennsylvania Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue team, met with Shapiro in 2023, following another public tragedy: an explosion at West Reading’s R.M. Palmer chocolate factory, where seven people were killed.

State Rep. Anthony Bellmon, whose district includes the fire station, said constituents have been coming to his office to connect with mental health resources following the crash.

“Because the plane crash happened so soon after the plane crash in Washington, D.C., people have a fear of flying, and for it to happen right at home, it really struck a nerve with a lot of our constituents,” Bellmon said, referring to a Jan. 29 collision between an airplane and a Black Hawk helicopter, which killed 67 people.

The cause of the Northeast Philly crash remains a mystery.

A preliminary investigative report, released last Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board, revealed that the Learjet’s cockpit voice recorder had likely not recorded audio for several years.

Authorities don’t yet know critical information about the status of the plane’s engines, or other flight components, such as the stabilizers, which help the aircraft fly straight.

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