Small plane crashes one minute after takeoff in Pachuca, Mexico, killing pilot and co-pilot

Mexico's Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) has confirmed that a Cessna 210 light aircraft crashed and caught fire about a minute after taking off from Pachuca airport on the morning of November 2, killing both people aboard. The aircraft had been bound for Cuernavaca International Airport in Morelos, and no cause has been established; an investigation is under way. (Cover photo is a file photo of a Cessna aircraft, not the aircraft involved.)

Departed 9:30 a.m.; down at 9:31 a.m. near a shopping area

According to AFAC, the aircraft departed Juan Guillermo Villasana Airport in Pachuca, Hidalgo, at 9:30 a.m. local time and came down at 9:31 a.m. during its initial climb, about 500 metres from the threshold of runway 21, on Tezontle Avenue in the Venta Prieta neighbourhood, where it caught fire on impact. Firefighters, civil protection personnel and military personnel responded to the scene, and video of the burning wreckage circulated on social media. The aircraft, registered XB-AZG and listed as a Cessna T210N, was operated by Grupo Aeroespacial Avspace, an aeronautical training company based in Cuernavaca.

Two dead provisionally identified as pilot and co-pilot; cause unknown

AFAC confirmed that both occupants died. A bulletin from Hidalgo's Sub Secretariat of Civil Protection and Risk Management provisionally named the dead as pilot Moisés González Meléndez and co-pilot José Jaime Jarquín Ramos, although AFAC's initial accident statement did not include their names, so formal identification should not be treated as complete. Neighbours suggested the aircraft may have become entangled in power lines before crashing, but that account has not been verified by investigators and should not be taken as the cause.