Investigators search for crash clues in Aeromexico plane wreckage

Grupo Aeroportuario Del Centro Norte SAB De CV

01/08/2018 17:20

MEXICO CITY, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Investigators including U.S.
officials began sifting through the wreckage of an
Aeromexico-operated  AEROMEX.MX  passenger jet on Wednesday for
clues to what caused it to crash in Mexico's state of Durango,
the head of the country's civil aviation agency said.
    All 103 passengers and crew survived when the Mexico
City-bound Embraer 190 passenger jet smashed into scrubland near
the runway during takeoff on Tuesday, evacuating the plane
before it caught fire. Nearly everyone on the flight suffered
minor injuries, according to Mexican officials.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1UR23A
    Sixty-four people have been released from hospitals,
Aeromexico said in a Wednesday morning Twitter post. Two people
were in critical condition, including the pilot and a minor, the
state health department said.
    Luis Gerardo Fonseca, director of Mexico's civil aviation
agency, told broadcaster ADN40 that members of his team began
working at the site of the crash around 7 a.m. local time (1200
GMT), along with representatives of the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA).
    Representatives of Embraer SA  EMBR3.SA  and the maker of
the plane's engines, General Electric Co  GE.N , are also
assisting, Fonseca said.
    Officials said it was too early to say what caused the crash
of flight number 2431, but investigators were expected to look
into wind shear - a downdraft from storm clouds known as a
microburst - as a potential factor. 
    Although rare, extremely violent and localized gusts can
cause problems for even the most modern plane during takeoff and
landing, when planes are most vulnerable to sudden weather
changes.
    Experts say most airline crashes are caused by a combination
of human and technical factors. It can take safety investigators
months to piece together the complex chain of events leading to
an accident.
    Determining the cause of the Durango crash may be made
easier by the location of the crash, which should allow easy
access to evidence, including the two flight recorders, one for
cockpit voice recordings and the other for flight data.
    Under international rules, Mexico will lead the
investigation with support from Brazil, where the Embraer jet
was designed and built, and from the United States, where
General Electric made the engines.

 (Reporting by David Alire Garcia in Mexico City; additional
reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris; writing by Tracy Rucinski;
editing by Jonathan Oatis)
 ((tracy.rucinski@thomsonreuters.com; 1-312-550-5937; Reuters
Messaging: tracy.rucinski.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))