PULSE NEWS MEXICO

Porfirio Sánchez Mendoza, head of Mexico’s central state of Aguascalientes’ police force, was killed Thursday, Nov. 17, in a helicopter crash.

The Aguascalientes Public Security helicopter collapsed in the late morning on Thursday, killing five people, including the head of that agency, Sánchez Mendoza.

The aircraft crashed in the Aguascalientes town of Jesús María after participating in a surveillance operation in the nearby state of Zacatecas.

Authorities have offered no explanation as to the cause of the accident.

According to early reports, the helicopter left the facilities of the State Institute for Public Security of Aguascalientes (IESPA) shortly after 8 a.m. and crashed near a public health clinic after making several erratic turns in the sky.

Since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) took office in December 2018, the country has suffered a spate of helicopter crashes, beginning with the once that killed then-newly instated opposition Puebla Governor Martha Erika Alonso and her husband just days after AMLO’s inauguration.

The cause of that incident, as well as most others, has yet to be resolved.