REVISES NUMBER OF INJURED, ADDS INVESTIGATION OPENED
By Alix Hardy
MEXICO CITY
At least 87 passengers were injured Tuesday when an Aeromexico plane with 103 people on board crashed near Guadalupe Victoria International Airport in Mexico’s Durango state.
Flight AM2431, an Embraer 190 aircraft with a capacity of 100 people, had been bound for Mexico City.
The Mexican airline reported earlier that there had been an accident at approximately 4 p.m.
“At least 87 have been injured in the crash, some with burns, but most of them lightly wounded,” Alejandro Cardoza, a spokesman for the state Civil Protection Agency, told local channel Milenio TV.
Forty-nine of them were transferred to various hospitals in Durango city, including the crew captain, who suffered a fractured femur, said the spokesman for the Red Cross in Durango, Mauricio Gorjon.
José Aispuro, the governor of Durango state, said no one was killed.
At a press conference, Andrés Conesa, director general of Aeromexico, said the plane was carrying four crew members and 99 passengers, including nine children and two infants.
Conesa did not disclose any information on the cause of the accident.
Cardoza said the plane was forced to land right after taking off some 10 kilometers from the airport. He said the weather at the time was problematic, with heavy rain and intense hail.
It is still unclear if the plane took off and then crashed or veered off the runway.
In videos and photos of the crash site, the plane appeared to be surrounded by smoke and had been partially consumed by a fire.
The state attorney-general's office announced it had open an investigation.
