Texas

Philly Woman One of Six Airmen Killed in Afghanistan Plane Crash

Friends and family are mourning a local woman who was one of the six airmen killed when a U.S. Air Force military transport plane crashed in eastern Afghanistan.

Airman 1st Class Kcey Ruiz, 21, who was originally from Philadelphia but moved to Georgia in 2004, according to her family members, died Friday after an American C-130 transport plane crashed after midnight local time (3:19 p.m. ET) at Jalalabad airfield in Afghanistan. 

The other airmen killed in the crash were Capt. Jonathan Golden, 33, of Camarillo, California, Capt. Jordan Pierson, 28, of Abilene, Texas, Staff Sgt. Ryan Hammond, 26, of Moundsville, West Virginia, Senior Airman Quinn Johnson-Harris, 21, of Milwaukee and Senior Airman Nathan Sartain, 29, of Pensacola, Florida. 

Golden, Pierson, Hammond and Johnson-Harris were based at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene. Sartain and Ruiz were based at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

In a memorial for the airmen, Maj. Met Berisha,  455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron commander, described Ruiz and Sartain as "the type of Airmen every commander sought to have on their team."

"I knew that without a doubt, that when our nation sent an aircraft into harm's way into an unsecured and dangerous Afghan airfield that the aircrew and aircraft were defended by the finest security forces Airmen our Air Force could possibly deliver," Berisha said. "Simply put, Ruiz and Sartain loved securing and projecting combat airpower for our nation. Their families not only raised fine American patriots, but they raised heroes that we all had the humble honor and phenomenal privilege to serve alongside with here."

Five civilian passengers who were contractors and two Afghan civilians were also killed in the crash. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
 
Copyright AP - Associated Press
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