Mexico recruits int’l experts to probe deadly helicopter crash

International experts will be part of the team investigating the cause of a helicopter crash that killed the governor of Puebla state, Mexico’s deputy transportation secretary said Tuesday.

“To have the most appropriate support for the investigation and to leave no doubt about the causes of the accident, we have precise instructions from the president of the republic to obtain the best international investigators,” Carlos Alfonso Moran told a press conference.

Representatives of the Italian company that manufactured the Agusta A109 aircraft and of engine-makers Pratt & Whitney are already at the crash site near Puebla city, Moran said, adding that Mexico is also expecting help from the US National Transportation Safety Board .

Killed in the Christmas Eve crash were Puebla Gov. Martha Erika Alonso; her husband and gubernatorial predecessor, Sen. Rafael Moreno Valle; a Moreno aide; and the helicopter’s pilot and co-pilot.

Alonso, of the right-wing National Action Party, took office Dec. 14 after the federal electoral tribunal ratified her contested victory in the July 1 election over Miguel Barbosa, candidate of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s leftist Morena party.

The president, who called the electoral court’s decision wrong and “anti-democratic,” offered condolences Monday to the loved ones of Alonso and the others killed in the crash.