Cargo Plane Crashes Near Mexico City; 24 Die

MEXICO CITY â€”  A four-engine cargo plane crashed onto cars on a crowded highway Thursday, rammed a restaurant, exploded and caught fire, officials said. The Red Cross said at least 24 people were killed and 11 or more injured.

A spokesman at the capital’s international airport, from which the plane took off two minutes before slamming onto an eight-lane highway on the city’s western outskirts, said the Boeing 377 propeller-driven craft was carrying eight people and 18 horses.

The plane came down into bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic on the highway to Toluca and smashed into the restaurant, officials said.

5 Cars Destroyed

Reuben Ramiriz, a Red Cross ambulance official, gave the tentative casualty figures.

He said at least five cars were destroyed by fire after the plane exploded. Police closed the highway in both directions.

Airport officials said the Miami-bound plane was operated by Belize Air International.

Residents of a neighborhood in the plane’s flight path said they heard an explosion and then saw heavy smoke rising into the air from a distance.

They also said the plane rocked from side to side before crashing onto the highway, clipping power lines and blacking out surrounding neighborhoods.

Elaine Carey, who lives in the residential Lomas Santa Fe neighborhood, said she and her neighbors ran outside when they heard the plane flying low over their homes.

“It was obviously laboring. It looked like it wasn’t going to make it and it didn’t,� she said.

“Down the street there is a house where some Americans live. It was at their window level, trying to climb. It barely made it over the house, and crashed a couple of blocks away,� she said. “It went over behind the house and then there was a big cloud of black smoke.�

Airport officials said the plane crashed at 5:03 p.m. local time.

Toluca, capital of adjacent Mexico state, is about 30 miles from the capital.