A minimum of five people, as well as a 2-year-old burn victim, lost their lives as a small plane operated by the Mexican Navy crashed while carrying the victim for medical care in the United States along the Texas coast near Galveston. “Of the eight people that were aboard the aircraft, two have survived the accident and one is missing,” said the Navy. This aircraft was ferrying the child from the Southern Mexican city of Merida.
The Galveston sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about further details. As per the local Mexican station N+, the two-year-old was covered with second and third-degree burns all over her body caused by boiling water that spilled on her, and there were no hospitals near her family’s home in Escarcega that had the necessary facilities to take care of her burn injuries.
N+ reported that in a hospital in Merida, a city some 320 km from where the incident occurred, the family of the child was introduced to the Michou y Mau Foundation, which takes care of burned Mexican children. In some instances, the charity brings severely burned victims of the war to be treated in a Galveston hospital.
Aircraft Lost Communication for 10 Minutes
Sheinbaum stated that the crash would be examined and that her government was already collaborating with the US to determine the events that took place during the 10 minutes that the plane was not communicating with the ground staff in Galveston.
The incident occurred as the small Navy aircraft was nearing the location of Galveston, where the child was to undergo specialised treatment for the burns. The aircraft crashed in the waters off the Texas coast. Both survivors were retrieved from the water, but there were search operations for the other person left missing. There has been no immediate comment on the condition or identity of the two survivors by the Navy.
The humanitarian mission had been organised for the severely burned child to be transported to the Galveston hospital, which is an expert at treating severely burned patients. Michou y Mau Foundation is an organisation that partners with hospitals in the US so that severely burned Mexican children can be treated in the US since they cannot be treated at home.
Among those in the aircraft are the medical personnel escorting the child as well as relatives and naval personnel manning the aircraft. All these people are on board for the particular emergency mission they are undertaking.
The ten minutes when the crew in Galveston and ground control didn’t communicate are most probably going to be a part of an extensive investigation determining the origin of the crash. The Mexican officials along with the US ones, are two sides of the same coin, working together to get to the bottom of the incident.
Such accidents in medical evacuation planes are rare, and it could be only a mechanical failure or bad weather that leads to the crash, among other reasons. They will look at all the possible angles before they start with the investigations. It is a sudden and tragic event that brings to a stop the airlift, which was a mission cast in the role of a hero, saving the life of an innocent boy. The consequence of the tragedy was the death of the youngster and some of the intended helpers.
Read more such news from the world by visiting Inspirepreneur Magazine.
