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After the Roman Catholic service, Sellers and other relatives drove to
the airport to see where the Learjet slammed into heavy woods along Route 28
in Fairfax County, killing seven adults and five children. But officials
warned them it might be too much to bear, and they left without seeing
investigators pick through what little was left of the TAESA Learjet 25-D.
The Sellerses, of Fairfax Station, said that Alejandro Garcia Velasco,
40; Vivian Crespo Garcia, 40; and their three children, Vivian, 13,
Priscilla, 10, and Alejandro, 6, were always doing things together. Velasco
was director of information in the Communications and Transport Secretariat,
the Mexican agency responsible for regulating airlines, including TAESA, a
carrier that has had repeated safety problems.
The pilot of the Learjet tried to land at 6:11 a.m. in the dense fog but
aborted for unknown reasons. As it made a second approach, about 6:25 a.m.,
the plane clipped several trees and crashed, leaving its tail section
hanging in several tall trees at about a 55-degree angle.
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Mr. [Carl Vogt] said the plane arrived in Chantilly around 6
a.m. EDT. Dulles controllers put it in a 20-minute holding pattern while
another small aircraft made an emergency landing. All of the victims were
Mexican citizens, though no hometowns were given. The relationships between
the dead could not immediately be determined. They were identified as
Alejandro Garza Rodriguez, 5; Vivian Crespo Huerta, 41; Alejandro Garcia
Velasco, 41; Luis Garza Rodriguez, 9; Luis Garza Hernandez, 37; Priscila
Garcia Crespo, 11; Alejandro Garcia Crespo Huerta, 17; Vivian Garcia Crespo,
13; Luis Diaz Barreiro Castillo, 17; Margarita Rodriguez de la Garza, 34;
Ricardo Hoyos Carrasco, 27; and Alfredo Angeles Chapa, 26.
Mr. Vogt also said U.S. officials did not know whether the plane carried
a flight data recorder, although he noted that since it was not of U.S.
registry, there was no requirement for one.
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NTSB Chairman Carl Vogt said at a news briefing last night
that the ceiling shortly before the plane arrived at the airport was 600
feet and that it had fallen to 500 feet after the crash. One commercial
airliner flew to another airport around the same time after abandoning an
attempt to land at Dulles, Vogt said. He said the crew of that plane had not
been interviewed and the reason it abandoned its attempt was not known.
Jose Henonin, a spokesman for TAESA in Mexico City, said the Garcia and
[Luis Garza Hernandez] families rented the plane at a cost of $1,500 an
hour. The plane stopped in New Orleans because the airline had been told
that the group might be delayed if it passed through customs in the early
morning hours at Dulles.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pen~a called Mexican Embassy
officials early yesterday to alert them to the crash, and the embassy
announced yesterday evening that TAESA was sending a plane to Dulles to
return the remains to Mexico.
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