At least five people have been confirmed dead after a Mexican Navy aircraft on a medical mission crashed in foggy conditions near Galveston, Texas, on Monday while transporting a child suffering from severe burns.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows that the aircraft was last recorded at 3:01 p.m. local time (9:01 p.m. GMT) over Galveston Bay, close to Scholes International Airport, shortly before it went down.
The plane was conducting a humanitarian medical evacuation on behalf of the Michou y Mau Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that provides specialised care for Mexican children with critical burn injuries.
Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy said in a statement that, in addition to the fatalities, one person remains missing, while two others were rescued alive from the wreckage.
Video footage shared with the Associated Press showed the aircraft’s debris partially submerged in the water, as witnesses and law enforcement officers entered the bay to search for survivors. Rescue operations were complicated by dense fog and poor visibility.
A local yacht captain, Sky Decker, who assisted emergency responders at the scene, described a dramatic rescue effort. He said he ferried two police officers to the crash site before jumping into the water himself, where he found a critically injured woman trapped inside the submerged aircraft.
“I couldn’t believe it. She had maybe three inches of air left to breathe,” Decker recounted. “There was jet fuel mixed with the water, and the fumes were overwhelming. She was really fighting for her life.”
Earlier, the Mexican Navy confirmed that joint search-and-rescue operations were under way in coordination with the United States Coast Guard. Video recorded near Scholes International Airport showed rescue teams, including divers, working amid thick fog to recover victims and debris.
In a statement posted on X, the Michou y Mau Foundation expressed its grief over the incident, saying: “We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy.”
Investigations into the cause of the crash are ongoing.
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