{"id":698668,"date":"2026-04-04T23:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698668\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:44:17","slug":"10-year-old-northeast-philadelphia-plane-crash-survivor-rings-bell-before-sixers-timberwolves-game-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698668\/","title":{"rendered":"10-year-old Northeast Philadelphia plane crash survivor rings bell before Sixers-Timberwolves game | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA, 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

Click here for updates on this story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A young survivor of the Northeast Philly plane crash took center court Friday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,307,152,3954,6,67,66,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-698668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","11":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116349099439122805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698668","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=698668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}