{"id":698416,"date":"2026-04-04T20:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T20:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:54:21","slug":"10-year-old-northeast-philadelphia-plane-crash-survivor-rings-bell-before-sixers-timberwolves-game-national-and-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698416\/","title":{"rendered":"10-year-old Northeast Philadelphia plane crash survivor rings bell before Sixers-Timberwolves game | National and World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here for updates on this story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW<\/a>) — A young survivor of the Northeast Philly plane crash took center court Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Ten-year-old Ramesses Vazquez-Viana was honored before the Philadelphia 76ers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves game.<\/p>\n

Minutes before tip-off, Ramesses rung the ceremonial bell to kick off the Sixers’ game as the arena looked on, hearing his story of resilience over the speakers \u2014 a journey we’ve documented from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Ramesses has been through so much and continues to heal from severe burns suffered in the January 2025 plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia. He suffered burns to more than 90% of his body.<\/p>\n

After nearly a year of treatment in Boston and more than 40 surgeries, Ramesses is now making a remarkable recovery.<\/p>\n

Ramesses is back in school part-time and surrounded by support, including from David Kelleher, owner of David Dodge, who gifted the family a minivan and a courtside experience to Friday’s game.<\/p>\n

“What Ramesses has done and the way he’s fought through this is Philadelphia, it’s Philly,” Kelleher said. “He and I have had a friendship together, a love for each other.”<\/p>\n

“I’ve never been in here, so it’s kind of surprising,” Ramesses said. “I never thought the stadium would be like this.”<\/p>\n

When asked if he was nervous to ring the bell Friday night, he had only this to say: “A little bit, but mostly my mom is nervous.”<\/p>\n

Before ringing the bell, Ramesses was met with a standing ovation from both Sixers and Timberwolves fans.<\/p>\n

His mother, Jamie Vazquez-Viana, joined him at center court as he rang the bell and said this moment was more than just a ceremony.<\/p>\n

“Every day he’s still showing me how great he is,” she said. “I’m learning from him. It’s amazing to see him so happy about it. This is a unique event, something we’ve never did before and he’s never gonna forget this.”<\/p>\n

She says this experience will stay with them long after the bell rings.<\/p>\n

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.<\/p>\n

\u200bTHE-CNN-WIRE (TM) & \u00a9 2026 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Click here for updates on this story \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A young survivor of the Northeast Philly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817],"class_list":{"0":"post-698416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116348431652901412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}