| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2008 
Mexico Blames Pilot Error in Crash
 Elisabeth Malkin - International Herald Tribune
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| | Mexico's Transportation and Communications Secretary Luis Tellez speaks in front of an image from a surveillance camera during a news conference about the Nov. 4 plane crash in Mexico City, Friday, Nov. 14, 2008. The turbulent wake of a large passenger plane likely caused the fatal crash of a government jet carrying Mexico's Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, Tellez said Friday. (AP/Marco Ugarte) | | |
Mexico City - The pilot of a small government jet that crashed last week, killing Mexico's interior minister, flew too close to a jumbo jet that it was following and lost control of the plane in the turbulence created by the larger plane, the authorities said Friday.
A preliminary report of the investigation pointed to pilot error as the most likely cause of the crash, which killed all nine people aboard the plane and five on the ground. The plane was approaching the Mexico City airport when it encountered the turbulence and slammed into evening rush-hour traffic in an upscale business district here.
The pilot and co-pilot appeared to have been confused about how to operate the Learjet's controls and failed to follow the air traffic controller's order to slow down as they approached the airport, Transportation Minister Luis Téllez said at a news conference that he called to release and explain the investigation's early findings.
Since the crash on Nov. 4, speculation in the local news media and on the streets has revolved around the theory that the crash was caused by sabotage, even though the authorities said last week that no explosives had been found in the plane's wreckage.
Mexico's government is engaged in a battle against violent drug trafficking cartels. The interior minister who was killed, Juan Camilo Mouriño, oversaw security issues in the Cabinet. Among the others killed in the crash was José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a longtime organized crime prosecutor who used to lead the agency that captured and extradited several major drug traffickers earlier in the decade.
"There was no indication of any sabotage whatsoever," Téllez said.
The evidence showed that the Learjet 45 "approached a Boeing 767-300, a heavy plane, at a distance that was less than the norm," Téllez said. Just before the crash, the Learjet was 4.15 nautical miles, or 7.7 kilometers, behind the jumbo jet. Standard flight procedures require a separation of five nautical miles.
"We also have preliminary evidence that the crew was not sufficiently familiar with operating the Learjet 45," he said. The flight's voice recorder showed that the crew felt the turbulence just before pilot lost control.
It will be several months before the final investigation will be completed, Téllez said.
The plane, which belonged to the Interior Ministry, was operated by a private company that employed the pilot, Martín de Jesús Oliva Pérez, and the co-pilot, Álvaro Sánchez y Jiménez. Both were certified to fly the Learjet model.
The authorities released a transcript of the flight voice recorder, which showed what Téllez called the pilots' "anguish, impotence and frustration" as they tried to regain control of the plane. The last word from one of the pilots was, "Dear God."
The government asked for help in the investigation from two U.S. agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, and from a British one, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, said Wednesday that U.S. investigators had found no evidence of sabotage, prompting angry responses from Mexican legislators who said he had spoken out of turn. |
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