Durango plane crash: All 103 people on board survived, governor says
MEXICO CITY — An Aeromexico airliner crashed after taking off in the northern state of Durango on Tuesday, a federal official confirmed.The governor of Mexico's Durango state says authorities have confirmed that all passengers and crew survived.
Gov. Jose Aispuro says the pilot and one other person have been hospitalized in serious but stable condition. Earlier, officials said 49 people in all had been taken to hospitals after Tuesday's crash.
Aispuro says that all aboard had been accounted for after the plane's burned hulk was checked and "no person has died."
The governor also has increased the number of people on the plane to 103, saying two minors had not been included in an earlier tally.
Aispuro said a gust of wind hit the jetliner shortly after it took off, causing the plane to lose speed and hit the ground with its left wing. Both engines were knocked loose.
Israel Solano Mejia, director of the city's civil defense agency, told Foro TV that the plane "made it off the ground, but fell nose-first" just a few hundred yards from the end of the runway.
"The nose took the hit. The most seriously injured is the pilot," Solano Mejia said. However, he said, "the majority of passengers left" the plane on their own.
The civil defense office of Durango state said the plane landed in a field near the airport for the state capital, also named Durango. The agency published photos of a smoking but seemingly relatively intact plane lying on its belly in a field. Lines of ambulances were waiting at the accident site.
Gerardo Ruiz Eparza, head of Mexico's Transport Department, said that "the plane fell upon takeoff." The flight covers the route between Mexico City and Durango.
A reporter for the news outlet Milenio said some passengers had survived and walked to a highway to seek help.
