A Mexican military helicopter crashed, killing two people on the ground in southeastern Mexico Friday night as authorities surveyed the damage caused by an earthquake, the country’s interior ministry said.
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake and a magnitude 5.8 aftershock — both with epicenters in the state of Oaxaca — struck the region Friday, the US Geological Survey reported.
Mexico’s Interior Minister, Alfonso Navarrete Prida, and Oaxaca’s governor, Alejandro Murat, were flying near the quake’s epicenters Friday, evaluating the damage when the helicopter crashed. Both men survived and they only suffered “slight concussions,” the Interior Ministry tweeted.
“We continue to evaluate the severity of those injured,” the statement added.
Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto said the crash took place while the helicopter was landing.
“Unfortunately, people on the ground lost their lives and others were wounded. My condolences to their families and my wishes for a prompt recovery to those injured,” the President tweeted.
Details about those killed were not available.
Emergency authorities had said there had not been “loss of human life” during the earlier earthquake. When addressing the helicopter crash on Twitter, Peña Nieto confirmed there had not been reports of fatalities directly linked to the quake and aftershocks.
Efrain de la Cruz, mayor of Santiago Jamiltepec, Oaxaca was on the phone with CNN en Español’s Mario González when the crash occurred.
“A helicopter carrying the governor and the others went down,” he said.
“A helicopter is down, a helicopter is down. Oh my God! It’s a military helicopter,” Cruz added. “This can’t be possible, oh my God.”