Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Mexico’s Puebla governor Martha Erika Alonso dies in helicopter crash


A Mexican governor who was sworn in earlier this month and her senator husband have died in a helicopter crash in the central state of Puebla.
The aircraft carrying Puebla Gov Martha Erika Alonso and Sen Rafael Moreno Valle came down shortly after it took off.
The two pilots were killed. Reports say a third passenger also died.
Officials say the helicopter may have suffered an unspecified failure. An investigation has been opened.
Ms Alonso, 45, had been sworn in on 14 December as Puebla’s first female governor, after hotly contested polls.
Mr Moreno, 50, had served as Puebla’s governor between 2011 and 2017.
What do we know about the crash?
The privately-owned Agusta helicopter bound to Mexico City lost contact with air traffic control and crashed 10 minutes after take-off, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said.
The accident happened on Monday at 14:50 local time (20:50 GMT) in the area of Santa María Coronango, near the state capital of Puebla, Mexico’s second-largest city.
“At this point, there’s no evidence that could lead us to conclude that the cause was not related to how the [helicopter] was functioning,” Mr Durazo told journalists.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said an investigation would be launched to establish “the truth” about what caused the crash.
In a tweet (in Spanish), he expressed “deepest condolences” to the relatives of the two politicians.

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