The U.S. NTSB is assisting Mexico’s Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC) in the investigation into the crash of a chartered Learjet 25 that claimed the life of Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera early Sunday morning. The twinjet disappeared from radar just minutes after it took off from Monterrey, Mexico, at 3:15 a.m. local time following her concert there, for a flight to Toluca.
An aerial search begun little more than an hour later soon located the crash site, approximately 70 miles away from Monterrey in rough terrain near the town of Iturbide in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range. According to Mexican officials, the debris field made up of largely unrecognizable pieces of wreckage was spread over a nearly 1,000-foot-wide impact zone.
The 43-year-old Learjet was registered to Las Vegas-based Starwood Management. All seven on board, including the flight crew, were killed in the crash. In July 2005, the airplane was substantially damaged during a runway excursion while landing at Amarillo, Texas. At the time, the jet’s pilot reported a loss of controllability during final approach.
