Mexico: Plane carrying 103 people crashes in Durango after take-off, no casualties
Governor of Durango state José Rosas Aispuro said 49 people were hospitalised and two people, including the pilot and passenger, were in critical condition.
An Aeromexico airliner carrying 103 people from the city of Durango in Mexico to the country’s capital Mexico City crashed soon after take off, but all passengers and crew survived the accident.
Aeromexico flight AM2431 was flying from Guadalupe Victoria International Airport to Mexico City. The plane, an Embraer 190, crashed close to the airport just moments after take-off, BBC reported.
Eighty-five people were injured in the accident. Governor of Durango state José Rosas Aispuro tweeted that there were no fatalities. “During the first inspection [of the plane wreckage] no bodies were found,” the governor said in an interview with Mexico’s El Financiero, according to The Guardian.
Forty-nine people were hospitalised – a pilot and a passenger are in “critical but stable condition,” CNN quoted Aispuro as saying.
Mexico’s communications and transport minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said that 103 people had been on the plane and all of them had been accounted for. “The 103 people who were travelling on Flight AM2431 to Mexico City have all been located, with no reports of fatalities,” Esparza said.
The operator of Guadalupe Victoria International Airport, Grupo Aeroportuario Centro Norte, said data suggests that bad weather was the cause of the accident. The plane reportedly tried to take off in heavy rain before being forced to make an emergency landing.
Civil defence spokesperson Alejandro Cardoza told BBC that a fire which started after the crash was put out. “Many managed to leave the plane on foot,” Cardoza said.
“Our priority is to guarantee the safety of the clients and crew on board and we are working for it,” Aeromexico said in a statement on Twitter.