A small business plane carrying 14 people from Las Vegas to Monterrey, Mexico was found Monday, according to a state government official. All people on board are believed dead.
According to Reuters, the Mexican newspaper Reforma reported the private plane had 11 passengers and three crew members. The wreckage was found by aerial surveillance about 129 miles northwest of the city of Monclova in the state of Coahuila, which borders Texas.
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Fernando Orta of the Coahuila emergency services department said officials still have not inspected the site, adding, “The land is rather mountainous… so they’re going to take a while longer to arrive.”
FlightAware reported the twin-engine jet was a Challenger business jet, built by Bombardier Inc. of Canada. The company has not commented on the crash.
Milenio, a local television network, released a photo allegedly showing the burnt wreckage, spread over the ground. Another local broadcaster, Televisa, said the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers around 5:20 p.m. local time, when the pilot was trying to lower the plane to avoid a storm.
According to Reforma, the passengers were in Las Vegas for Sunday’s boxing match between Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs.
This was the second plane crash in as many days. On Sunday, a jet crash-landed on a Moscow runway, killing 41 people. According to Russian authorities, 37 passengers escaped down the evacuation slides as the plane’s rear became completely engulfed in flames.
According to ABC News, Russian investigators are still determining the cause of the crash. They are looking into several theories, including poor weather, inexperienced pilots and possible mistakes by inspectors, ground crew or air traffic controllers.
The U.S. State Department confirmed one of the deceased passengers was an American.
“The U.S. Department of State extends our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the Aeroflot SU 1492 accident,” a State Department official said Monday. “We can confirm the death of one U.S citizen and are providing all appropriate consular services to the family of the deceased.”
The plane was a Sukhoi Superjet 100, the first Russian passenger jet developed since the fall of the Soviet Union. International airlines have avoided the plane, citing concerns about the materials. One plane crashed in a sales demonstration in 2012, and Mexico’s Interjet is reportedly looking to sell some of their planes after maintenance concerns.
Photo credit: Jenny Lilly/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images
