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No fatalities reported after plane carrying 103 crashes in Mexico

Dozens of people have been injured after a plane crashed shortly after taking off from an airport...
Newstalk
Newstalk

10.06 1 Aug 2018


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No fatalities reported after p...

No fatalities reported after plane carrying 103 crashes in Mexico

Newstalk
Newstalk

10.06 1 Aug 2018


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Dozens of people have been injured after a plane crashed shortly after taking off from an airport in Mexico.

Aeromexico said there have been no reports of any fatalities.

There were 103 passengers – 88 adults, nine children and two babies – on board at the time as well as four crew members.

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The airline said the plane was on its way from Durango to Mexico city when it came down.

Mexican authorities said 85 were injured and somewhere between 37 and 49 needed hospital treatment.

Two are in a critical condition, the civil protection agency said.

Rescuers at a plane-crash site in Durango, Mexico, 31-07-2018. Image:  STR/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

Aeromexico general director Andrés Conesa said: "Our heart is with those affected and their families.”

“We are deeply saddened and moved by this incident, and we would like to reiterate, first of all, that the Grupo Aeromexico family extends its support, thoughts and prayers to those affected and their families,” he said.

“We are doing everything in our power to assist them and their families."

TV images showed the tail of a plane sticking out from scrubland amid the badly damaged fuselage and smoke rising into the sky.

A reporter for network Milenio said some passengers had been able to walk to a nearby motorway for help.

Alejandro Cardoza, a spokesman for the state's civil protection agency, said on local television that a fire had broken out but had been extinguished.

All had been able to leave the plane before the blaze got too bad, he added and "many managed to leave the plane on foot."

One passenger, Jackeline Flores, later told reporters she and her daughter got out through a hole in the fuselage as the aircraft began to fill up with smoke.

"A little girl who left the plane was crying because her legs were burned," said Ms Flores.

The plane was a Brazilian-made Embraer 190 aircraft. It was 10 years old.

There are conflicting accounts over whether the plane came down shortly after takeoff or ran off the runway without gaining altitude.

Witnesses and officials agreed the plane was trying to take off during a storm, with some reporting hail stones the size of marbles.

The Brazilian planemaker has sent a team of investigators to assist with an investigation into the crash.


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