Khlood Hammad was at the drive-thru lane of a Northeast Philadelphia Dunkin’ on the evening of Jan. 31, 2025, when a private medical transportation jet nose-dived into the ground a block away.
Read more Temple and Jefferson resident physicians have ratified union contracts
The sheer force of the blast and the gruesome scene still haunts Hammad, she said in a lawsuit filed this month against the jet’s operator.
Hammad suffers from dizziness and imbalance because of injuries to her head and ears, the suit says, and she developed post-traumatic stress disorder that has been impacting her ability to work.
“It’s just miraculous that anyone that close survived,” said Joseph Russomanno, Hammad’s attorney.
The lawsuit is the latest against Med Jets, the Mexican air carrier that operates specialized airplanes for medical transport, and the second this month by a witness of the crash that killed eight people, injured dozens, and impacted hundreds of homes.
The new suits, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, expand the circle of crash victims pursuing claims against Med Jets, vying for a chunk of the company’s $10 million insurance policy.
Med Jets — which operates under the name Jet Rescue Air Ambulance — is already facing two wrongful death lawsuits brought by families of Mexican nationals who were killed and a lawsuit brought by a man who was severely burned near the crash site.
And more than 100 claims have been submitted to the federal judge overseeing the distribution of Med Jets’ insurance funds. These include the families of the eight people killed in the crash; neighborhood residents and businesses; insurers; and Philadelphia, which estimated the cost of the crash to taxpayers at $2.5 million.
“There’s a lot of people in line for the $10 million,” said attorney Michael Hanamirian, who represents another witness who is suing the company. “It sounds like a lot of money, but in this case it’s not a lot of money.”
Hanamirian sued Med Jets this month on behalf of Yunelly Cervera, who saw the crash from her home and had plane debris land on her property.
Cervera has been experiencing troubling dreams and panic attacks, among other symptoms of post traumatic stress, the suit said.
The crash took place shortly after 6 p.m. on a Friday. The Med Jets-owned Learjet 55 plummeted 1,650 feet at more than 235 miles per hour within a minute of taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
All six people aboard the jet died, including 11-year-old Valentina Guzman Murillo, who was heading home after having spent four months undergoing treatment for a spinal condition at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia.
The crash also killed Dominique Goods Burke and Steven Dreuitt, a couple who was enjoying a family outing in the Roosevelt Mall.
And at least 20 more were seriously injured.
Med Jets did not respond to a request for comment.
The company’s insurance provider, El Águila Compania de Seguros, filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia’s federal court last summer saying claims would far exceed the remaining liability limits” the company’s $10 million insurance policy.
It is unknown how many more people have viable claims similar to Cervera and Hammad, attorneys said.
Once the insurance funds are exhausted, those who weren’t compensated — at all or sufficiently — could attempt to obtain a judgment directly against the company, Hanamirian said.
But the value of Med Jets’ assets remains an open question, the attorney said,and enforcing any award issued in a U.S. court on a company across the border can be tricky.
“The judgment has to be significant enough to enforce because of all the time and steps involved,” Hanamirian said.