At least 85 people were injured after an Aeromexico flight crashed on takeoff during a heavy hail storm in northern Mexico, engulfing the plane in flames, officials said Tuesday.
The Embraer 190 aircraft, which was operating between Durango and Mexico City, crashed around 4pm local time "with 97 passengers and four crew members on board," according to Mexico's transport minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza.
"It is confirmed that there have been no deaths from the flight #AM2431 accident," tweeted Jose Rosas, the governor of Durango state, where the crash happened.
Dozens of lightly injured passengers were seen leaving the plane, which was engulfed in gray smoke in a field. A reporter for network Milenio said some passengers had walked from the crash site to a nearby highway to seek help.
"Approximately 85 people are injured," Durango's civil defense spokesman Alejandro Cardoza told the Milenio television channel, adding there are some "serious injuries" but the majority are "very light."
Forty-nine passengers were taken to hospital, while the rest were allowed to return home after assessment.
The operator of Durango airport, Grupo Aeroportuario Centro Norte, attributed the crash to bad weather conditions, citing preliminary reports.
"We were on the runway when the visibility grew worse," 47-year-old Jacqueline Flores, who was traveling with her 16-year-old daughter, told AFP.
Photo by the Civil Protection State Coordination shows emergency personnel at the site where an Aeromexico plane crashed, in Durango, Mexico, 31 July 2018. Source: CPCE Durango
"When we were already aloft, up high, it felt like the plane was going to level out but just then is when it plunged to the ground.
"I think we fell back on the runway because it was a hard surface, then we skidded on the ground until it stopped," added the Durango native, a housewife who was on a journey back to Colombia where she lives.
With the plane on the ground amid some bushes and brush, Flores said luggage began sliding down the aisle and she started to smell smoke.
All 103 people on board the plane crash in Mexico survived. Source: Civil Protection of Durango
According to Rosas, the passengers helped each other quickly evacuate the aircraft through the openings in the cabin caused by the accident.
In July 1981, an Aeromexico flight crashed on landing in northern Chihuahua due to bad weather, killing 32.
