Mexico says jet crash likely accident

[November 06, 2008]  MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A fiery plane crash into rush-hour traffic claimed the life of Mexico's most powerful official after the president, a heavy blow to the government's escalating battle against drug cartels.

Officials say all indications are that the crash was an accident, but they vowed to investigate thoroughly to rule out the possibility of an attack and brought in U.S. and British investigators to help.

Officials played reporters a black-box recording of the final conversation between the flight crew and the control tower. It appeared to be normal until the tape suddenly went silent just as radar lost the plane's altitude reading. There was never a call for help or any indication from the crew that something was wrong.

The plane carried Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, the equivalent of Mexico's vice president and head of domestic security, as well as former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos.

As the government Learjet 45 approached the Mexico City airport it suddenly plunged into rush-hour traffic in the posh Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, igniting a fireball that lit up the evening sky.

"There was an explosion and we started to run. That was when we saw everything on fire behind us," said Guadalupe Sanabria, who was selling hot dogs from a street stand 20 yards (meters) from where the jet crashed.

Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera said all nine people aboard the craft and five on the ground were killed.

Dozens of cars caught fire and at least 40 people were injured. Officials evacuated about 1,200 people from the scene near the busy Reforma Avenue as hundreds of police, firefighters and soldiers searched charred hulks of vehicles for the remains of bodies, many of which were burned beyond recognition.

The U.S. government lamented Mourino's loss, with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff calling the Cabinet leader "a courageous and strong partner in the fight against dangerous criminal groups."

"He believed in the rule of law and worked very hard to increase coordination among security officials and law enforcement on both sides of the border," Chertoff said in a statement Wednesday.

Many Mexicans immediately speculated that the crash was another hit by drug cartels that have killed several top officials in recent months. That speculation contributed to a 1.3 percent drop of Mexico's peso Wednesday, to 13 to the dollar, said Meg Browne, senior currency strategist with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York.

The Mexican government has increasingly come under attack, with Vasconcelos the target of at least one planned assassination attempt when he was in charge of prosecuting and extraditing drug traffickers.

The Sinaloa cartel is suspected of having killed acting Mexican federal police chief Edgar Millan in May, likely for his crackdown on trafficking at the airport. Just months after taking office nearly two years ago, Calderon acknowledged receiving threats.

"It makes you suspicious, the way things are going with drug trafficking in this country," said Arturo Hernandez, a 39-year-old bank employee sitting at a cafe in Mexico City. "It seems like an attack."

Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez, however, told a news conference that "there are no indications that would support any hypothesis other than that this was an accident, but we will investigate until all possibilities have been exhausted."

Tellez said the plane was under constant security before taking off from San Luis Potosi, where the officials had attended an event, and there were no signs the 10-year-old craft exploded or caught fire in flight. He said a mechanical failure may have caused the crash.

U.S. experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, arrived Wednesday, and three experts from Britain's Civil Aviation Authority will also help investigate, Tellez said.

Keith Holloway, the spokesman for the NTSB, also said there was no indication that foul play was involved.

"If it was known as this point that there was some criminal activity, then the NTSB would not be assisting," he said.

The death prompted Mexico's Congress to postpone debate on a new budget until next week, the government news agency Notimex reported.

[Associated Press; By JULIE WATSON]

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