Aerial view of the crash site.
Eleven people remain in hospital after Tuesday’s crash of Aeroméxico flight 2431, which is now the subject of a negligence suit in a United States court.
The airline said one of the most seriously injured, an eight-year-old girl who suffered severe burns, has been transferred by air ambulance to her hometown of Chicago where she will continue to receive medical care.
Of the four crew members who were on board only Captain Carlos Galván remains in the hospital, where he is recovering from surgery.
The plane crashed during takeoff Tuesday afternoon in a hailstorm at Guadalupe Victoria Airport in Durango. Eight-five of the 103 people aboard were hurt after the Embraer 190 aircraft hit the ground and slid across a field a few hundred meters from the end of the runway.
One of the injured was Néstor Martínez, 43, a Mexican teacher living in Chicago. He was returning home from a family vacation when the accident occurred and was hurt getting out of the plane, his attorney said.
Bob Bingle said the basis of the lawsuit against Aeroméxico, which was filed Thursday on Martínez’s behalf in Chicago, was to obtain compensation for his injuries and find out what happened. He also wondered why the takeoff was not aborted.
Another of Martinez’s lawyers, Thomas A. Demetrio, told reporters that his client is seeking monetary compensation but the amount was not disclosed.
“You can take off in bad weather, but you have to do it properly, and we will certainly be looking at that aspect of this crash,” he said.
He added that while weather is often a factor in many plane crashes, it is not necessarily a cause of the crash. Rather, the issue is often how the airline monitored the weather in its preflight preparations, and then corrected for it during takeoff.
The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the crash. It has retrieved the plane’s flight recorders, which it said were in good condition.
