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The Embraer 190 aircraft crashed on the verge of take-off during a heavy hailstorm in northern Mexico, submerging the plane in flames and injuring 97 people on Tuesday night. Thankfully no death was recorded in the incident.
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Airline’s Director General Andres Conesa told a news conference that the aircraft, operating between Durango and Mexico City, crashed around 3:00 pm local time (20:00 GMT). The aircraft was carrying 88 adults, nine minors, two infants, two pilots and two flight attendants, reports The Financial Express.
Conesa thanked the crew ‘for their professionalism’ and said that the aircraft “was perfectly maintained”, but did not provide details on the circumstances of the accident. “It is confirmed that there have been no deaths from the flight #AM2431 accident,” the Governor of Durango State Jose Rosas tweeted. The accident did cause two serious injuries: a pilot had to undergo a spinal operation and a young girl suffered burns of 25 percent, the Governor said.
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An investigation team by Embraer (Brazilian aircraft manufacturer) was deployed at the crash site for inspection. Jacqueline Flores, who was travelling with her 16-year-old daughter said, “we were on the runway when the visibility grew worse,” 47-year-old told AFP.
Flores, Durango native, a housewife who was on a journey back to Colombia when the incident took place. “When we were already aloft, up high, it felt like the plane was going to level out but just then it plunged to the ground. I think we fell back on the runway because it was a hard surface, then we skidded on the ground until it stopped,” she was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
She added that the luggage began sliding down the aisle and she started smelling smoke. Another on-board passenger, Rosas said, “I undid my seatbelt and saw flames, and realised we had to jump. There was a hole right next to us and the plane had broken up, I told my girl – ‘We have to jump over here’ and we jumped.”
She added that the passengers helped each other to quickly evacuate the aircraft through the openings in the cabin caused by the accident.
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