Missing Mexican aircraft found

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October 17, 2013

The single-engine Cessna 208-B Caravan was located from the air in the mountains of La Giganta, 26km west of Loreto, the airport in the state of Baja California Sur from which the plane departed.

Weather is believed to have been a factor in the crash with Tropical Storm Octave bringing heavy rain to the area Monday.

The Cessna Caravan was on a 30-minute flight to Ciudad Constitucion.

A search was launched two hours after take-off but later suspended because of bad weather.

It has been suggested that pilot may have altered course because of the weather and become disoriented.

The Cessna Caravan is a popular plane with over 2000 built since it first flew in December 1982.

There have been 231 incidents and accidents involving the Caravan.

So far for 2013 there have been 22 crashes with 197 fatalities.

The ten year crash average is 27 accidents with 627 deaths.

Last year was the safest on record with 15 fatal accidents involving with 414 fatalities.

In 2012 there were 37.5 million flights which carried almost 3 billion passengers