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| Photos and flowers honoring late singer Jenni Rivera, placed by fans next to religious images, are seen at the cemetery where her mother is buried in Hermosillo, northern Mexico, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. U.S. authorities confirmed Monday that Rivera, a U.S.-born singer whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles made her a Mexican-American superstar, was killed in a plane crash early Sunday in northern Mexico. |
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The plane carrying Mexican-American music superstar Jenni Rivera plunged almost vertically from more than 28,000 feet and hit the ground in a nose-dive at a speed that may have exceeded 600 miles per hour, Mexico's top transportation official said Tuesday.
In the first detailed account of the moments leading up to the crash that
killed Rivera and six other people, Secretary of Communications and
Transportation Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told Radio Formula that the plane
hit the ground 1.2 miles from where it began falling, meaning it
plummeted at a nearly 45 degree angle.
"The plane practically nose-dived," he said. "The impact must have been terrible."
Ruiz
did not offer any explanation of what may have caused the plane to
plummet, saying only that "The plane fell from an altitude of 28,000
feet ... It may have hit a speed higher than 1,000 kph (621 mph)."
Mexican
authorities were performing DNA tests Tuesday on remains believed to
belong to Rivera and the others killed when her plane went down in
northern Mexico early Sunday morning.
Investigators said it would take days to piece together the wreckage of the plane carrying Rivera and find out why it went down.
The
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to
help investigate the crash of the Learjet 25, which disintegrated on
impact in the rugged terrain in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico.
Human
remains found in the wreckage were moved to a hospital in Monterrey,
the closest major city to the crash, and Rivera's brother Lupillo was
driven past a crowd of reporters to the area where the remains were
being kept. He did not speak to the press.
A
state official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the
ongoing investigation, said investigators were testing DNA from the
remains in order to provide families with definitive confirmation of the
deaths of their loved ones.
"We're in the
process of picking up the fragments and we have to find all the parts,"
Argudin told reporters on Monday. "Depending on weather conditions it
would take us at least 10 days to have a first report and many more days
to have a report by experts."
In an interview
on Radio Formula, Alejandro Argudin, head of Mexico's civil aviation
agency, said Mexican investigators weren't sure yet if the Learjet had
been equipped with flight data recorders. He also said there had been no
emergency call from the plane before the crash.
Fans
of Rivera, who sold 15 million records and was loved on both sides of
the border for her down-to-earth style and songs about heartbreak and
overcoming pain, put up shrines to her with burning candles, flowers and
photographs in cities from Hermosillo, Mexico to Los Angeles.
Some Spanish-language radio stations played her songs nonstop.
Pedro
Rivera Jr., Jenni's brother, recalled his last conversation with his
sister at church when they were taking a collection to buy Christmas
toys for needy children.
He said his sister
gave him $5,000 to give to the children. "She said, `I just want to see
them smile. I just want to see them happy.' All she wanted was to see
the happiness in people. And then she gave me a big hug. She said, `I
love you, brother.'"
Another brother, Juan Rivera, still held on to hope that his sister would be found alive.
"In
our eyes, we still have faith that my sister will be OK. We have no
confirmation of her body being recovered, dead or alive," he told
reporters.
The California-born woman known as
the "Diva de la Banda" died as her career peaked. She was perhaps the
most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated Mexico
regional style, and had branched out into acting and reality television.
A
43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, she had
recently filed for divorce from her third husband, former Major League
Baseball player Esteban Loaiza.
Rivera
recently won two Billboard Mexican Music Awards: Female Artist of the
Year and Banda Album of the Year for "Joyas Prestadas: Banda." She was
nominated for Latin Grammys in 2002, 2008 and 2011.
Besides
being a singer, she appeared in the indie film Filly Brown, which was
shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and was filming the third season of
"I love Jenni," which followed her as she shared special moments with
her children and as she toured through Mexico and the United States.
She also had the reality shows: "Jenni Rivera Presents: Chiquis and Raq-C" and her daughter's "Chiquis `n Control."
The
Learjet 25, number N345MC, with Rivera aboard was en route from
Monterrey to Toluca, outside Mexico City, when it was reported missing
about 10 minutes after takeoff.
Authorities
are looking into the history of the plane's owner, Starwood Management
of Las Vegas. Another of its planes was seized in September by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration in McAllen, Texas.
According
to the National Transportation Safety Board, the twin-turbojet was
substantially damaged in a 2005 landing mishap at Amarillo International
Airport in Texas. It hit a runway distance marker after losing
directional control. There were four aboard but no injuries. It was
registered to a company in Houston, Texas, as the time.
The company is also subject of a federal lawsuit in Nevada.
QBE
Insurance Corp. alleges that a Starwood aircraft was ordered seized by
the DEA when it landed in McAllen, Texas, from Mexico on Sept. 12. The
New York-based insurer sued in October to rescind coverage for the
Hawker 700 jet.
Starwood, in a court filing, acknowledged that the DEA was involved in the seizure of the aircraft.
QBE,
based in New York, said the DEA also seized a Starwood-owned Gulfstream
G-1159A - insured by another company - when it landed in Tucson from
Mexico in February. Starwood said in its court filing that it didn't
have enough information to address the allegation.
Nevada
secretary of state records list only one Starwood officer - Norma
Gonzalez - but QBE alleges that the company is owned and managed by Ed
Nunez, who, according to the lawsuit, is also known as Christian Esquino
and had a long criminal history.
Starwood rejected the insurer's description of Nunez's role at the company.
According
to QBE's lawsuit, Esquino pleaded guilty in federal court in Orlando,
Florida, in 1993 to conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
QBE
said Esquino also served two years in prison after pleading guilty to
conspiracy to commit fraud involving an aircraft in Southern California
in 2004. QBE said Esquino's attorney stated in court back then that his
client had been under investigation by the DEA for more than a year.
Starwood
said in its court filing that it didn't have enough information to
address either the Florida or Southern California case against Esquino.
George Crow, an attorney for Starwood, did not immediately respond to phone and email messages left after business hours Monday.
There
have been several high-profile crashes involving Learjets, known as
swift, longer-distance passenger aircraft popular with corporate
executives, entertainers and government officials.
A
Learjet carrying pro-golfer Payne Stewart and five others crashed in
northeastern South Dakota in 1999. Investigators said the plane lost
cabin pressure and all on board died after losing consciousness for lack
of oxygen.
Former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker was severely injured in a 2008 Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people.
That
same year, a Learjet slammed into rush-hour traffic in a Mexico City
neighborhood, killing Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino and eight
others on the plane, plus five people on the ground.
