9-month-old on flight carrying Afghan evacuees dies after landing in Philadelphia

Washington — A 9-month-old girl on a plane carrying Afghan evacuees died on Wednesday after arriving at the Philadelphia airport with her father, officials said, marking the first known death of an evacuee on U.S. soil.

Chris Mitchell, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, said the girl was on a C-17 flying from Germany to Philadelphia International Airport when she became unresponsive. EMTs met the aircraft when it landed, and the girl and her father were sent to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was pronounced dead soon after. A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department said officers responded to a call of a sudden infant death and were met at the hospital by agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who said the girl had "suffered a medical emergency." The police department's special victims unit and the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office are investigating the death.