LG, Bernhard
CNN.com wrote:Mexico copter crash called accident
Public safety chief among victims
Thursday, September 22, 2005; Posted: 12:36 p.m. EDT (16:36 GMT)
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- All available evidence on Thursday suggested bad weather led to a helicopter crash that killed a Cabinet minister overseeing federal police and his deputy, the president's office announced.
The helicopter carried Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta, Federal Preventive Police Commissioner Tomas Valencia, five other passengers and a crew of two. It took off from Mexico City and crashed into a wooded mountainside about 20 miles (30 kilometers) outside Mexico City.
"All the elements that we have at hand, all the experts that were consulted, say that there is sufficient evidence to consider that that we are dealing with an accident," presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said at a news conference. "But we must wait for the results of the investigation."
While one official aboard the craft had received death threats from a drug trafficker, authorities maintained that dense cloud cover and poor visibility was to blame.
The first recovered body was airlifted from the mountains Thursday morning as aviation investigators reached the crash site at an altitude of 11,200 feet (3,400 meters).
The helicopter's impact left debris scattered among pine trees. Police and soldiers gathered body bags in a nearby clearing.
Remains were being transported to offices of the Mexico state attorney general's office for identification and on to Mexico City for funeral services.
As public safety secretary, Martin Huerta was a key figure in Mexico's fight against drug gangs and he led a campaign to clamp down on security at high-security prisons, including La Palma prison outside Mexico City, where the helicopter had been headed for a swearing-in ceremony for prison guards.
Moving up the chain of command, Rafael Rios became secretary of public safety, while Arturo Jimenez stepped in as chief of the Federal Preventative Police.
Among the passengers killed in the crash was Jose Antonio Bernal, an official from the country's National Human Rights Commission. The commission announced shortly after the helicopter went missing that Bernal been threatened in the past by reputed drug lord Osiel Cardenas, reportedly for refusing greater privileges for Cardenas in prison.
Aguilar said officials were puzzled by the announcement, calling the timing of the commission's letter so soon after the crash "strange."
Fox went on national television Wednesday evening to say he had lost not only a Cabinet secretary but also a close friend in Martin Huerta, who led Fox's campaign for state governor in Guanajuato in 1995.
Martin Huerta was appointed to lead Public Safety in August 2004 after the previous secretary, Alejandro Gertz Manero, resigned to return to private life.
Valencia had been promoted to his police chief post, answering to Huerta, in January after his predecessor was fired for a botched response to an attack by a mob in Mexico City that left two federal agents dead.
Civil aviation authorities at the Communications and Transportation Department were leading the investigation into what caused the crash. Aguilar promised the results would be made public and urged people not to speculate about the cause of the crash.
Original unter: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/22/mexico.crash.ap/index.html