MEXICO CITY, November 10 (RIA Novosti) – Pilot error was to blame for the 2011 helicopter crash that killed Mexico’s top law enforcement official, according to the official report on the incident published on Friday.
Mexican Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora, the government’s No. 2 official and a key figure in the fight against the drug cartels, died on November 11, 2011 when the Eurocopter Super Puma he was riding in crashed in near-zero visibility outside the capital.
The crash investigation determined that the pilot changed course to avoid poor weather, but lost his orientation in the clouds. Crew fatigue may have also been a factor, the report said.
“We conclude that if they had not modified the course selected by the onboard navigation system, the accident might have been avoided,” the head of Mexican aviation agency ASA, Hilberto Lopez Meyer, is quoted in the report as saying.
Investigators at the crash site found no evidence of an explosion or technical fault aboard the helicopter prior to terrain impact, the report said.
Blake Mora was the second Interior Secretary serving in President Felipe Calderon’s administration to die in an aviation crash. In November 2008, Secretary of the Interior Camilo Mourino died when the Learjet 45 he was flying in crashed into a Mexico City street during rush hour, killing 13 people, including all eight on board the plane, and setting dozens of cars ablaze.
