Officials In Border Plane Crash Found Dead

(CBS/ AP)  U.S. Border Patrol says it has found the crash site of a small plane carrying two International Boundary and Water Commission officials and two others that went missing in a rugged section of the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico. There were no survivors, according to the intergovernmental agency.

Bill Brooks, spokesman for the Border Patrol in Marfa, Texas, said the crash site was about 20 miles northwest of Presidio. He says Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection air and marine officers identified the plane by its tail number.

The plane had been missing since Monday, when it took off from El Paso to check out flooding on the Rio Grande. Search efforts were made difficult by the swelling of the Conchos and Bravo rivers, according to Mexico's Foreign Relations Department.

Earlier Tuesday, Chihuahua state Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Reyes told reporters in Ojinaga that U.S. investigators had located the plane and that all four passengers had died in a crash. His press office later retracted his statement and said the search for the plane continued.

The plane carried U.S. commissioner Carlos Marin and his Mexican counterpart, Arturo Herrera. Jake Brisbin Jr., executive director of the Rio Grande Council of Governments, also was on the plane along with a pilot, according to Presidio County Judge Jerry Agen.

Sally Spener, a spokeswoman for the IBWC in El Paso, said the plane left El Paso just after 10 a.m. Monday and was scheduled to pass over the Luis Leon Reservoir in northern Mexico so the men could get a view of floodwaters that are threatening levees on both sides of the border near Presidio.

Officials started looking for the plane Monday after it didn't land as scheduled in Presidio, about 250 miles southeast of El Paso.

Marin has worked with the IBWC's U.S. section since 1997. He was appointed interim commissioner in 2005 and took the title permanently a year later on an appointment from President Bush.

Herrera has led the Mexican section of the IBWC for more than 18 years.

The international agency is responsible for maintaining the border between the U.S. and Mexico. In areas divided by the Rio Grande, that includes building and maintaining levees.

Ongoing flooding has prompted the evacuations of hundreds of people living on both sides of the swollen river.

Spener said Tuesday that a levee along the Rio Conchos, a river that feeds into the Rio Grande, failed Monday night. Floodwaters were reported in low-lying areas on the western side of Ojinaga. Monday afternoon, houses and businesses near the Rio Grande levee in the Mexican border city were lined with sandbags and appeared empty.

"We understand it (the levee break) is affecting low lying areas in Ojinaga," Spener said. "That did relieve some of the flows that have been in the Rio Grande but we do expect that water levels will rise."

[chachi87102]

How dare some of you make this horrible situation an immigration issue. Real lives on both sides of the border are being affected by this devasting flood. This is a time when we must all come together to help those in need. My family has lived in this area (on both sides of the border) for many generations and not only do we have to guard against mother nature but ignorant people. God bless

[chachi87102]

How dare some of you make this horrible situation an immigration issue. Real lives on both sides of the border are being affected by this devasting flood. This is a time when we must all come together to help those in need. My family has lived in this area (on both sides of the border) for many generations and not only do we have to guard against mother nature but ignorant people. God bless

[chachi87102]

How dare some of you make this horrible situation an immigration issue. Real lives on both sides of the border are being affected by this devasting flood. This is a time when we must all come together to help those in need. My family has lived in this area (on both sides of the border) for many generations and not only do we have to guard against mother nature but ignorant people. God bless

[borderdrama]

That area, near Chinati Peak, is the Texas Big Bend''s "Bermuda Triangle."

It is the location of many UFO sightings and several plane crashes. It is the setting for the novel, "The Ghost of Mount Chinati."

[thevicar1]

Mountain flying is inherently dangerous for small planes ---------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Pensacola98


Yeah, the really BIG PLANES just bounce off the mountains, not even a scratch!

[thevicar1]

More innocents die in the struggle to control Criminal Tresspassers from invading our once pure and proud Nation. How many more must die before we get a President who is brave enough to declare WAR on ILLEGALS????

[credibility2]

Assuming these individuals were knowledgeable of their positions and also the terrain they''d be flying over, why would they take risks in craft that may not have suitable? Sounds suspicious.

[TrishG62]

"The loss of the public servants is sad. Mexico and the USA have made great strides on improvement of joint agendas and relations. "--

What malarkey. Mexico now interferes with and influences this government more than ever and our officials are in bed with Mexico dumping their poor for American taxpayers to prop up. They probably wanted to see if America needed to provide boats for the illegal aliens who couldn''t wade across the Rio Grande while it''s flooded. They''ve terrified the border patrol agents from stopping them lest they be imprisoned. Anytime the Mexicans and Americans put their heads together on something, taxpayers had better be on the alert.

[pensacola98]

Mountain flying is inherently dangerous for small planes. Most don''t have good climbing rate performance to begin with, and all piston engine aircraft perform marginally at high altitudes. The mountains are known for winds that can exhert updrafts and downdrafts that exceed the climbing performance for most fully loaded piston aircraft.

The space shuttle measured mountain wave winds from space and found that they exist for up to two thousand miles past the mountains that created them. Glider pilots love them but also must remain aware of the locations of the downdrafts to stay far from them. The mountain wave winds look like a flag rippling in the wind, but in a horizontal orientation, which accounts for the up and downdrafts.

In El Paso, the most dangerous winds come from the south west off the mountains in northern Mexico.

The loss of the public servants is sad. Mexico and the USA have made great strides on improvement of joint agendas and relations.