MEXICO CITY, May 7: A plane crash in a remote mountain region in northern Mexico claimed the lives of all 13 people on board, including a family of five that were flying back from watching a boxing match in Las Vegas, authorities and local media said on Monday.
The wreckage of the plane that took off from Las Vegas on Sunday was found via aerial surveillance in the northern municipality of Ocampo, the government of Coahuila state said in a statement.
A photograph published on local television network Milenio showed what it said were the burnt remnants of the plane, broken into pieces, spread over charred earth.
Mexican media reported that the passengers had been to a boxing match between Mexican boxer Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and U.S. fighter Daniel Jacobs in Las Vegas on Saturday.
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The nationalities of the victims were not immediately clear. The surnames of the three crew and 10 passengers published by the Coahuila government were all Hispanic.
The victims were between 19 and 57 years old, according to a version of the passenger list published in Mexican media.
Newspaper Diario de Yucatan said on its website that among the victims were 55-year-old businessman Luis Octavio Reyes Dominguez, his wife, and their three children.
In a statement, Canada’s Bombardier Inc identified the jet as a Challenger 601 and said the plane had gone missing about 150 nautical miles from the northern Mexican city of Monclova.
Expressing its condolences to the victims, the company said it had been in touch with Canada’s transportation safety board and would work with the investigating authorities.
Alvarez was saddened to hear of the crash.
“I deeply lament the terrible accident of the plane coming from Vegas,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday. “I’m deeply grateful for the support of all the people who travel to see my fights. My prayers are with their families.”
Mexico’s civil aviation authority said the aircraft departed Las Vegas shortly before 3 p.m. local time. Nearly two hours later, Monterrey lost track of the jet and was unable to make contact with pilots, it said in a statement.
Mexican broadcaster Televisa said that the pilot had intended to descend to avoid a storm.
Francisco Martinez, an emergency services official in Coahuila, told Milenio recent adverse weather conditions would form part of the investigation into the crash. However, he stopped short of saying weather had caused it.
