85 injured after Aeromexico plane crashes at airport

Eighty-five people have been injured after an Aeromexico flight crashed while en route to Mexico City, according to government officials.

Flight 2431 was taking off at the General Guadalupe Victoria International Airport in the northwest Mexican state of Durango Tuesday afternoon when it crashed, according to Durango state Governor José Rosas Aispuro Torres.

There have been no reported deaths following the crash, according to Aeromexico and the Durango governor.

“It is confirmed that there were no deaths following the accident of flight Aeromexico 2431,” Aispuro Torres wrote on Twitter. “At this moment on behalf of the cabinet, led by Coordinator Rosario Castro, to attend to the injured and cooperate with airport authorities with what has occurred.”

Two passengers were injured critically, Fernando Rios, a spokesperson for Durango’s State Coordination of Civil Protection said on Mexican television.

The Durango governor said a gust of wind hit the plane shortly after take-off, which caused the jet to lose speed and hit the ground with its left wing, The Associated Press reported. The plane skidded into a field horizontally, which allowed for the escape slides to be activated, freeing the passengers and crew before they caught on fire, the governor told the AP.

The plane’s pilot is in serious condition with burns, he said.

Everyone who was on board the plane have been sent to local hospitals, a Durango Civil Protection spokesperson said. Some survivors were able to walk away from the crash to a nearby road.

“The scene that we can see here is approximately 1 kilometer from the end of the runway. We can say that the airplane was not even able to take off at the moment it was forced to land. We do not know if it was a mechanical failure,” Durango Civil Protection spokesperson Alejandro Cardoza said on Mexican television.

The plane was taking off when it tried to abort the takeoff due to bad weather, but it was too late, Aispuro Torres told reporters. The plane went down after the runway ended, Aispuro Torres said.

Weather reports showed scattered storms in the area at the time of the accident.

There were 99 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 plane, the Durango governor told the AP. An earlier report of the passenger tally did not include two infants.

Although a fire broke out after the plane crashed, none of the injured appear to have suffered from burns, Alejandro Cardoza, a spokesperson for the Durango Civil Protection, said on Mexican television. The fire appears to be under control, Aispuro Torres told reporters.

Source: ABC News

-Agencies