Mexico helicopter crash kills four, including state security chief

MEXICO CITY: A top Mexico state security official was among four killed in a helicopter crash in Mexico on Wednesday that was likely due to bad weather, Michoacan Gov. Silvano Aureoles announced in a post on Twitter.

Aureoles said the crash occurred as the helicopter was traveling between Morelia, the colonial-era Michoacan state capital, and the city of Huetamo, about 120 miles (190 km) to the south.

The state’s Public Security Secretary Jose Martin Godoy and German Ortega, a state health official and two pilots who were not named died, said Aureoles.

There were no survivors.

“Everything indicates that weather conditions took the aircraft down,” he added, noting that an investigation had been launched.

Michoacan is one of several Mexican states racked by deadly drug gang violence as rival cartels fight to control lucrative smuggling routes and other criminal enterprises.