Small plane crashes in central Mexico, killing at least 7 people

A small plane crashed in cen­tral Mex­i­co while try­ing to make an emer­gency land­ing Mon­day, killing at least sev­en peo­ple, Mex­i­co State Civ­il Pro­tec­tion Co­or­di­na­tor Adrián Hernán­dez said.

The ac­ci­dent took place in San Ma­teo Aten­co, an in­dus­tri­al area three miles (5 kilo­me­tres) from the Tolu­ca air­port, about 31 miles (50 kilo­me­tres) west of Mex­i­co City. The plane had tak­en off from Aca­pul­co, along Mex­i­co’s Pa­cif­ic coast.

Hernán­dez said the pri­vate jet had reg­is­tered eight pas­sen­gers and two crew, but hours af­ter the crash, on­ly sev­en bod­ies had been re­cov­ered.

He said the plane had ap­par­ent­ly tried to land on a soc­cer field but hit the met­al roof of a near­by busi­ness, start­ing a large fire. The crash is un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

San Ma­teo Aten­co May­or Ana Muñiz told Mile­nio Tele­vi­sion that the fire forced the evac­u­a­tion of some 130 peo­ple in the area.

MEX­I­CO CITY (AP)