Mexican political power couple killed in Christmas helicopter crash

A husband-and-wife political power couple – one the current governor of the central Mexican state of Puebla, the other the former governor - died in a Christmas Eve helicopter crash.

Martha Erika Alonso and Rafael Moreno Valle have been killed in a helicopter crash. Source: Reuters

The governor of the Mexican state of Puebla and her husband, a senator and former governor, have been killed in a helicopter crash, the country's president said.

"My deepest condolences to the relatives of Senator Rafael Moreno Valle and his wife, governor of Puebla Martha Erika Alonso," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter.

In a 2010 photo Rafael Moreno Valle, then-candidate of the "Compromiso por Puebla" party coalition, flashes two thumbs up after casting his vote. Source: AP

"I assume the commitment to investigate the causes" and  "tell the truth about what happened," Lopez Obrador wrote.

The helicopter's two pilots and an assistant to the senator also died in the crash.

The aircraft went down 10 minutes after taking off in the Santa Maria Coronango area of Puebla, and the cause of the crash is still unknown.

Alonso was sworn in as governor on December 14 after an electoral tribunal certified her victory in July polls.

She was the first woman to occupy the position in Puebla, where her husband was governor from 2011 to 2017.

Emergency services at the scene of the helicopter crash. Source: AP

According to the local constitution, the state legislature will have to appoint an interim governor and to call an extraordinary vote that must be held in three to five months.