21 Aboard Die as DC-3 Hits Hill in Mexico

A propeller-driven Aero California DC-3 slammed into a hill and burst into flames Wednesday as it tried to land at a small, foggy airstrip on the Pacific coast. All 21 people aboard were killed, airline spokesmen said.

There were 18 passengers and three crew members aboard, all Mexican citizens, said Mara Castellon, spokeswoman for the regional, privately owned airline serving northwestern Mexico, including Baja California.

Witnesses said the twin-engine plane tried to make it to the agricultural landing strip because the Los Mochis international airport 12 miles away had been closed by the thick fog. Ernesto Zavala Valdez, a spokesman for the airline in Los Mochis, blamed “lack of visibility” for the accident.

Eyewitness Report

Los Mochis is in Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California from Baja California. It is a fishing community and the center of a prosperous agricultural area.

Cam Rossie, an Associated Press correspondent, was flying above the Los Mochis airport in a six-seater Cessna when the crash occurred. She said the plane crashed on a hillside in its second attempt to land.

The plane “burst into flame, and from the air you could see the tail section was separated and it looked like the plane was totally destroyed,” she added.

Zavala said the small airstrip has been closed to commercial traffic for at least five years, accepting only agricultural fumigation planes.

The government news agency Notimex quoted unidentified “official sources” as saying the pilot had been advised to fly to the commercial strips at Guasave or Navojoa, towns in the border state of Sonora to the north, but he decided instead to try the smaller airfield.