Not quite a miracle
Mex. crash ‘survivable’
The survival of all 103 people aboard an Aeroméxico plane that crashed and burned during a blustery storm has been described as a miracle — but a safety expert cited factors beyond divine intervention.
The Embraer 190 jetliner was en route from the state of Durango to Mexico City when it went down minutes after takeoff and crashed into a field near the runway.
Officials said 49 people were hospitalized. Among them was a group from the Chicago area, including a priest, NBC News reported.
The pilot, Capt. Carlos Meyran, suffered the most serious injury and required surgery. Some survivors had bad burns, a local health official said.
“I feel blessed and grateful to God,” said Jackeline Flores, who escaped with her daughter as the jet quickly filled with smoke and flames.
David Gleave, a UK-based crash investigator and air-safety consultant, cited the relatively low speed of the impact, as well as decades of improvements in aircraft design, for the lack of fatalities.
“It’s not a miracle,” he told NBC. “This is [an] accident that should be survivable. We’ve worked long and hard in the industry to ensure that an event like this is something that people can walk away from. The safety of passengers is no accident.”
He added: “The grassy area you see around an airport is not just wasteland, it is deliberately kept free of obstacles . . . It is designed to allow a landing that people can walk away from.”
All modern aircraft also are certified to be evacuated within 90 seconds.
Gleave said investigators will likely focus on the strong winds, heavy rain and large hail that swept the area around the time of the accident.
Both of the plane’s engines were knocked off and it plowed through the ground before coming to rest about 328 yards from the runway, Durango Gov. José Rosas Aispuro told reporters.