Helicopter Crash In Empalme

Helicopter Crash In Empalme

On Thursday around 1 PM a helicopter crashed in Empalme, the next town south of us about 10 miles.

It was a Mi-17, model 1975 owned by the Mexican Air Force and has been in service with them since 1997. There were 9 people aboard and miraculously none were killed.

When it crashed it did not explode; but did take out a bunch of electrical lines. Some of the lines were connected to Conagua and because of this affected their pumps. Approximately 37 thousand people in Guaymas and Empalme were without water for some time until the lines were repaired.

They are saying that the crash was caused by a mechanical fault, apparently the helicopter had taken off about 20 minutes before it crashed. It crashed in a sports field, so luckily no one on the ground was injured as far as I know.

Photographs taken from the El Vigia newspaper.