Des Plaines priest among survivors of Aeromexico plane crash

MEXICO CITY - A priest serving in Des Plaines is in a hospital after an Aeromexico airliner crashed shortly after taking off during a storm in the northern state of Durango on Tuesday.

The Very Rev. Esequiel Sanchez, director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, was among the 103 passengers on the plane. The state's governor said there were no deaths in the accident and in fact many passengers walked off the plane under their own power.

The Archdiocese of Chicago said Tuesday evening Sanchez was injured but OK.

"He sustained some injuries but we are grateful to learn he is alert and resting," the archdiocese said in a statement. WBBM Newsradio reported the archdiocese said Sanchez broke his arm.

The civil defense office of Durango state said the plane came down in a field near the airport for the state capital, also named Durango, and caught fire. The office published photos of a smoking but seemingly relatively intact plane lying on its belly in a field.

Lines of ambulances were waiting at the accident site. But the director of the Durango state civil defense office told Foro TV that "the most seriously injured is the pilot." Israel Solano Mejia said "the majority of passengers left (the plane) under their own power."

Durango Gov. Jose Aispuro wrote in his Twitter account that "it is confirmed there were no fatalities in the accident."

WBBM reported that Sanchez's niece is at his bedside in a Durango hospital, and Sanchez has been in touch with two sisters in Chicago and with archdiocese superiors.

Sanchez was born in Chicago to immigrant parents from Durango, Mexico, and attended University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1995. He had served as pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Parish in Chicago before being appointed the rector of the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine in 2016.

"Let me tell you one thing, Sunday there's going to be a lot of people praying and asking for healing," parishioner Alberto Espinoza told ABC 7 Chicago.

Aispuro said 49 people have been hospitalized. He described an accident scene in which some passengers got out under their power, and some even wandered back to the airport to seek out relatives.

Officials and witnesses differ on whether the plane either fell shortly after takeoff or ran off the runway without really gaining altitude. But they agree the plane was trying to take off during a storm. Gerardo Ruiz Eparza, head of Mexico's Transport Department, said "the plane fell upon takeoff."

The governor said a gust of wind hit the plane shortly after it took off, causing the jet to lose speed and hit the ground with its left wing, knocking both engines loose. He said the plane skidded into a field in a horizontal position, which allowed escape slides to activate so all passengers and crew could escape before the plane caught fire.

Aeromexico said the incident involved an Embraer 190 plane with a capacity of 100 passengers on a flight from Durango to Mexico City. Aispuro said 103 people were on the plane.