The late Captain Talavera, who died a few days ago after crashing a Challenger 601 bound to Monterrey and departing from Las Vegas, was apparently linked to “El Chapo” and even Gaddafi. Also... he didn’t even have license?
Nonetheless, the aircraft, a challenger 601 made in 1989...registered in Salt Lake City, was being used as a charter: Which supposedly it shouldn’t have been able to since it was registered as a private jet, not a comercial one. No one survived the crash, many were part of Grupo Salinas... which is, in and of itself, a huge can of worms.
Apparently the jet’s registration was valid through 2020, and they blame weather and pilot error for the crash.
The pilot was arrested by Mexico’s Office of the Attorney General in 2006, after trying to bring Gaddafi’s son to Mexico illegally, and he is being investigated for links to El Chapo... which is fascinating.
Despite it being an American company, with a jet registered in the United States, they noted in the manifest that the captain actually resided in the outskirts of Toluca, Mexico... Which shouldn’t be a surprise... Toluca Airport is the busiest private aviation airport in Mexico, and Mexico is the second country with the most private jets in the world.