1 pilot dead after crop-dusting planes collide in Chihuahua

July 23, 2018

Scene of the wreckage after yesterday's collision.

One pilot died yesterday in a collision between two crop-dusting aircraft over a Chihuahua cornfield.

The accident occurred at 9:00am in the western Chihuahua municipality of Namiquipa. The victim, identified as Jesús Manuel Pacheco Armenta, was found lying beside his plane, while the second pilot was found severely injured inside the cockpit.

Jesús Gumaro López Trevedan was rushed to a nearby hospital in the town of El Terrero.

The civil aeronautics office in investigating.

There were reports of a second plane crash yesterday in the state, triggering a joint air and land search operation by the three levels of government.

Residents of the southern part of the state near the border with Durango reported seeing an aircraft flying low and in flames. The sighting was followed by the report of a crash near an area known as El Campestre y las Cribas.

Three aircraft participated in the search operation covering a 200-square-kilometer area near the Parral-Matamoros highway, but no sign of a crash was found.