Hot metal wreck
All 103 passengers manage to flee before plane erupts in flames
Firefighters dousing the flames from a burning Aero operated Embraer passenger jet that crashed in Mexico’s northern state of Durango. There were injuries but all 103 people aboard survived the crash.
MEXICO CITY: An Aeromexico jetliner taking off in a blustery storm smashed down into a nearby field but skidded to a stop virtually intact, and all 103 people aboard were able to escape advancing flames before fire engulfed the aircraft.
Passengers expressed gratitude to be alive, but many were extremely shaken after the crash at noon on Tuesday.
“It was really, really ugly,” said Lorenzo Nunez, a passenger from Chicago who fled the plane with his wife and two sons.
“It burned in a matter of seconds.”
Survivors said the Embraer 190 plane burst into flames right after it hit the ground.
“We felt the flames coming quickly ... there was a lot of smoke,” Jaquelin Flores told the El Sol newspaper.
Romulo Campuzano, head of a political party in Durango state who was on the plane, told Foro TV that both wings were on fire as he bolted from the aircraft.
Durango state governor Jose Aispuro said a gust of wind hit Flight AM2431 just as it was lifting off the tarmac, forcing the pilot to abort the take-off.
Passengers said they heard a loud noise as the plane’s left wing banged to the ground and both engines tore loose. The plane stayed upright, however, and the escape slides activated.
Aispuro said it was too soon to
speculate on the cause of the crash.
Mechanical failure and human error could be factors, but certainly the weather was not favourable.
Strong wind and heavy rain with marble-sized hail lashed Durango city, even damaging hangars at the airport.
“The most important thing in the seriousness that is an accident of this nature is that there were no deaths – that’s what is most encouraging for us,” Aispuro said at a news
conference on Tuesday.
After the accident, several passengers walked away from the plane before first responders arrived. Some sought medical help while others rushed home to loved ones.
Officials spent much of the afternoon tracking down survivors to ensure that everyone was accounted for.
Officials said 49 people had been hospitalised – most with minor inju-
ries. The pilot suffered the most serious injury, a cervical lesion that required surgery.
Some people had burns on a quarter of their bodies, said Durango state Health Ministry spokesman Fernando Ros.
Aeromexico chief executive officer Andres Conesa described the day as “very difficult” and credited the timely reaction of crew and passengers for the lack of fatalities. — AP