At least 5 killed after Mexican Navy plane on medical mission crashes in Texas

Tragedy struck the Texas coastline on Monday as a small Mexican Navy plane, carrying a young medical patient and seven others, plunged into the waters near Galveston, claiming at least five lives and prompting an urgent search along the bay.

Among the passengers were four Navy officers and four civilians, including a child. Two of the civilians were members of a nonprofit organisation devoted to providing critical medical transport for Mexican children suffering from severe burns to a Galveston hospital. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The Mexican Navy extended its “deepest condolences” to the grieving families, describing the accident as a heartbreaking loss.

The ill-fated flight went down in Galveston Bay, near the base of the causeway linking Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders and search teams rushed to the scene along the popular stretch of Texas coast, approximately 50 miles southeast of Houston.

Amid the chaos, local yacht captain Sky Decker recounted a harrowing rescue. Navigating through thick fog, he and two police officers located the nearly submerged aircraft. Decker described pulling a critically injured woman from beneath wreckage, her only lifeline a narrow three-inch air pocket, with jet fuel fumes mingling with the cold water. Beside her lay a man who had already succumbed, both dressed in civilian clothes.

The flight was part of a humanitarian mission in collaboration with the Michou and Mau Foundation, which provides emergency transport for children with life-threatening burns to Shriners Children’s Hospital in Galveston. The foundation expressed its grief and solidarity with the families, reaffirming its commitment to sensitive and dignified care for children.

Authorities from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived on site to investigate, while local Galveston County teams deployed dive units, drones, and patrol officers to assess the scene.

Though the area has been experiencing dense fog in recent days, it remains unclear whether weather contributed to the accident. At around 2:30 pm, visibility had been reduced to roughly half a mile, adding a layer of peril to the already urgent rescue efforts.

The incident marks a somber reminder of the perils faced even in missions of mercy, as heroic efforts sought to salvage lives from the waters of Galveston Bay.

With AP/PTI inputs