Aeromexico Plane Crashes in Mexico, but Officials Say Everyone Survived

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MEXICO CITY — An Aeromexico jetliner carrying 101 people crashed in stormy weather shortly after takeoff on Tuesday in Mexico’s north-central state of Durango, according to Mexican officials and images posted on social media. But in what appeared to be a remarkable survival story, officials said none of the occupants had been killed.

The Mexican airline said on its Twitter account that Flight 2431, an Embraer ERJ-190AR jet, had been scheduled to fly from the General Guadalupe Victoria International Airport in the city of Durango to Mexico City. The 550-mile flight takes about two hours.

“We deeply regret this accident,” Aeromexico said in a statement. “The families of all those affected are in our thoughts and in our hearts.”

The plane, carrying 97 passengers and four crew members, crashed after departing the airport around 4 p.m., Secretary of Communications and Transportation Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said on Twitter.

The governor of Durango State, José R. Aispuro, confirmed on Twitter that there were no deaths. Alejandro Cardoza, a spokesman for the state Civil Protection Agency said at least 80 of the plane’s occupants were being treated at hospitals.

Fernando Ríos, a spokesman for the state Health Department, said that of the 18 people taken to the General Hospital, one of the facilities treating the injured, 12 were in critical condition.

Photos posted to social media by the Durango branch of the country’s Civil Protection Agency showed thick black smoke rising from the body of the plane. Several ambulances were also seen in the area.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. But OMA, the company that operates the Durango airport, as well as 12 other international airports in north-central Mexico, said in a Twitter post that preliminary information indicated that the crash was “due to adverse weather conditions.”

Governor Aispuro told Foro TV that the plane had departed during a storm and that the pilots might have “wanted to abort” the takeoff.

Other Mexican news media said that the aircraft hit the ground nose-first, a few hundred yards from the end of the runway, and that many of the passengers were able to clamber out of the plane on their own.

The Brazilian-made Embraer plane was about 10 years old and had been used by two other airlines, according to the aviation website Planespotters.

Aeromexico is considered one of the world’s safer airlines. Airlineratings, a website that keeps track of airline performance, has given Aeromexico a top safety rating.

But the airline has not been free of serious or fatal accidents. In August 1986, an Aeromexico flight approaching Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico crashed, killing 64 people on board, 15 people on the ground and three in a smaller aircraft that collided with the airplane. In 1981, an Aeromexico jet steered off a runway and burst into flames as it was landing at Chihuahua in northern Mexico, killing 36 people.

Reporting was contributed by Megan Specia, Josh Keller, Rick Gladstone and Satoshi Sugiyama from New York.

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