US experts believe Mexico plane crash was accident

[Alamuti Lotus]

Source: AP

MEXICO CITY – U.S. investigators have found no evidence of foul play in a mysterious plane crash that killed Mexico's second-most powerful official, the American ambassador said Wednesday.

U.S. National Transportation and Safety Board experts say that, so far, nothing in the flight data recorder, cockpit recorder or other evidence indicates that "sabotage or criminal activity caused the crash," Tony Garza said in a statement.

"The preliminary evidence indicates the crash was a tragic accident," he added.

The NTSB team has been in Mexico for a week to help investigate the Nov. 4 crash that killed Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, who was the equivalent of Mexico's vice president and the closest confidant of President Felipe Calderon.

Five people on the ground and nine people on the plane were killed when the Learjet 45 suddenly plunged into an upscale Mexico City neighborhood. Also among those on board was former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_plane_crash

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Rumour has it that surviving members of the Warren Commission were brought in to investigate; the Magic Building theory is gaining traction. :eyes:

[Peace Patriot]

1. And we should trust Bush's National Transportation & Safety Board because...?

:rofl:

[bemildred]

2. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

It would be interesting to see what the cockpit recording says. Did they know they were about to crash? If they did, what did they think about it?

[Alamuti Lotus]

3. no details about the contents that I can find

not that I'd expect anyway. Possibly "oh shit" or it's Spanish equivalent... :shrug:

Successor named--

Calderon Names Gomez Mont as Mexico Interior Minister

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon named Fernando Gomez Mont, a lawyer and former federal congressman, as his new interior minister today after former minister Juan Camilo Mourino died in a plane crash last week.

Calderon said Gomez Mont is well positioned to coordinate the fight against drug cartels and oversee judicial reforms approved this year because of his experience.

``He will continue the negotiation, daily interchange and respectful relations with the different political forces of the country,'' Calderon said today, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Gomez Mont takes on the battle versus narcotics traffickers amid a surge in related violence that has claimed more than 4,000 lives this year and shaken confidence in the government's ability to control organized crime. Mexican law says the interior minister is in charge of taking on the presidential duties when the president dies or is unable to govern.

Gomez Mont is a member of the executive committee of Calderon's National Action Party and a partner in the Mexico City law firm Zinzer Esponda y Gomez Mont Abogados. He was a federal congressman in the early 1990s and represented the party before the Federal Electoral Institute for many years, Calderon said.

Gomez Mont isn't very familiar outside of political circles and has been out of public light as a private lawyer, said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst with the Mexico City-based Center for Economic Research and Teaching. Calderon was under pressure from his political party, known by its Spanish initials PAN, to choose someone closely linked to the party, Crespo said.

[investintrains]

4. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man speaks of many CIA arranged plane crashes

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man speaks of many CIA arranged plane crashes in Central and S America etc.

Why is it that Democratic politicians die 5 times as frequently
as Republicans?
Ted Kennedy survived his crash.
Other didn't:
John F Kennedy Jr
Ron Brown
Mel Carnahan
Paul Wellstone
etc