Helicopter crash kills 13, hurts 16 in Mexico
Townspeople had moved to an open field after 7.2 quake
MEXICO CITY — A military helicopter carrying Mexico’s Interior Minister crashed while assessing damage from a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, killing 13 people and injuring 16, all of them on the ground, prosecutors said Saturday.
A state government official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said the copter crashed into a group of people who had been spending the night outside after the earthquake hit the area. Aftershocks, including one of 5.8 magnitude that struck about an hour after the first, had caused people to flee their homes for fear they would collapse.
The Defense Department said the Blackhawk helicopter apparently flipped and fell on top of the townspeople as its pilot tried to land on a vacant lot in the town of Santiago Jamiltepec, about 19 miles from the area of Pinotepa Nacional.
Jorge Morales, a local reporter who was aboard the helicopter when it crashed, described harrowing moments as the pilot lost control and attempted to touch down in a swirl of dust.
“The moment the helicopter touched down it lost control, it slid — like it skidded — and it hit some vehicles that were parked alongside the area that had been defined for the landing,” he told a Mexican TV news program. “In that moment, you couldn’t see anything, nothing else was heard beside the sound that iron makes when it scrapes the earth.”
The Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office said five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later at a nearby hospital.
President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted that Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state Gov. Alejandro Murat, who were on the helicopter, survived unharmed.
Both Navarrete and the Defense Department said they regretted the loss of life in Friday’s crash.
The same town where the accident occurred also saw significant destruction from the earthquake.
The officials had been assessing damage caused by the earthquake, which struck around 6 miles southeast of Pinotepa Nacional in Oaxaca.
Even though Mexico appeared to have escaped major destruction from the quake, it rekindled fears in a population that still sees daily reminders of deadly earthquakes that struck five months ago.
A national emergency committee reported 200 homes had been damaged, primarily in the southern state of Oaxaca, along with the City Hall and main church in the town of Santiago Jamiltepec.
Two people sustained broken bones but had been treated in Pinotepa Nacional, and their lives were not in danger, the Interior Department said in a statement.
Nearly 1 million customers were said to have lost power, but service had been restored to 99 percent of them, it added.
dpa contributed.