Last Saturday, Licenciado Pablo Casas Lías, director of the National Institute of Legal-Aeronautical Investigations (INIJA), issued a statement regarding the tragic air accident in Philadelphia, United States, which resulted in seven fatalities, six of whom were Mexican citizens, and multiple injuries. The aircraft involved was a Learjet 55 belonging to the companies Med Jets and Jet Rescue Aid, with Mexican registration 'XA' and tail number 'UCI'.
According to Casas Lías, although the official investigations will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, the Federal Agency of Civil Aviation (AFAC) must verify compliance with legal requirements, maintenance, and crew training of the involved companies, which would be crucial for the investigation.
In the statement, Casas Lías mentions that the companies in question have been previously accused of negligence in training their crews and proper maintenance of the aircraft. To support his claims, he points to previous incidents involving the companies, such as one in 2019 and another in 2023, both with fatal consequences.
In 2019, a Med Jets aircraft had problems landing at the Toluca airport, while in 2023, they were involved in a fatal accident in Temixco, Morelos. Additionally, it is revealed that Med Jets has been a supplier to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in the past, with multimillion-dollar contracts during the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The statement also mentions that Jet Rescue Aids, the other company that owns the crashed aircraft, is related to the governments of Guadalajara and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, raising questions about the supervision and insurance required by law for these companies.
Finally, Casas Lías concludes by emphasizing that there will be those responsible for the deaths that occurred in the accident, suggesting that AFAC may not have fulfilled its duty to inspect and audit Med Jets and Jet Rescue Aids, according to scanned documents of the contracts with the IMSS presented in the statement.
