Martha Erika Alonso, her husband, and three more people died when an Agusta Westland AW-109S grand crashed in the outskirts of Puebla City, it was headed to Mexico City.
Erika Alonso had been the first female governor of Puebla, and was sworn in just ten days ago after a contentious election filled with voter fraud allegations by MRN; the President’s party. Erika’s husband, Moreno Valle, was the former governor of the same state and a possible presidential hopeful for PAN; the conservative party.
Although AW-109s are safe aircraft (and this had a valid inspection certificate prior to the crash) these seem to crash in Mexico all the time, with high profile deaths in 2012, 2015, and 2016 involving this type.
Mexico’s Secretary of Civilian Safety indicated that they’d investigate the accident, that the aircraft had been airborne for a scant 10 minutes before the accident and that both Leonardo aviation and Pratt and Whitney where contacted to further understand the circumstances behind the crash.
Puebla Secretary of Public Safety Rodriguez Almeida (who was Mexico City’s police chief and AG before becoming a member of Erika’s cabinet) became the interim governor and will remain as so for three months as elections are readied.
Miguel Barbosa, who was the candidate for the governorship by MRN, will probably become the next governor of the state once the congress requests a special election in three months.
