Thu, Sep 22, 2005
Evidence Suggests It Was An Accident
It appears -- for the moment -- to have been an accident.
Mexico's Public Safety Minister Ramon Martin Huerta, Federal
Preventive Police Commissioner Tomas Valencia five other passengers
and a crew of two were killed Wednesday when their helicopter (type
unknown) crashed into the side of a mountain during what officials
described as poor weather.
"All the elements that we have at hand, all the experts that
were consulted, say that there is sufficient evidence to consider
that that we are dealing with an accident," presidential spokesman
Ruben Aguilar told a news conference, quoted by the Associated
Press. "But we must wait for the results of the investigation."
But questions linger over the crash,
given that at least one of the passengers had recently received a
death threat from a drug dealer.
Recovery teams began bringing bodies down from the densely
wooded mountainside Thursday morning. The aircraft impacted terrain
at an elevation of approximately 11,200 feet some 20 miles from
Mexico City.
Mexican President Vicente Fox called Huerta a good cabinet
officer and a close friend. Their association predated Fox's 1995
victory in the race the governorship of Guanajuato in 1995.
One of the other passengers on board the helo, Jose Antonio
Bernal, was under death threat from a drug lord to whom he refused
to grant favors. That word came in a letter from the National Human
Rights Commission released shortly after the aircraft went missing
on Wednesday.
An official investigation is underway.
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