US-Mexican singer Jenni Rivera dies in plane crash

MEXICO CITY:

Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera died in a plane crash after the small jet she was travelling in went down in northern Mexico, her father said on Sunday.

A spokesman for the state government of Nuevo Leon said investigators had found the remains of Rivera’s Learjet, which disappeared from the radar 62 miles from the northern city of Monterrey at about 3:30 am local time/4.30 am EST.

Speaking after the wreckage was discovered, the singer’s father, Pedro Rivera, told Telemundo television all seven of the people on board the plane, including two pilots, had died.

“Everyone was lost,” Rivera said, flanked by two sons.

Investigators are still searching the crash site in the municipality of Iturbide, south of Monterrey. The transportation and communications ministry said the wreckage was strewn so far and wide that it was hard to recognise anything.

It was not clear what caused the crash.

Rivera, 43, was heading for the city of Toluca in central Mexico after a concert in Monterrey on Saturday night.

Born in Long Beach, California, to Mexican immigrants, Rivera sold some 15 million records in her career, won several awards and received Grammy nominations, her website said.

CNN reported that Rivera, a mother of five, was known to fans as “la diva de la Banda,” or the diva of Banda music, establishing herself initially as a regional Mexican musical powerhouse with her Banda and corridos, or traditional ballad, performances.

“We lost an awesome woman, mother, sister, friend and artist,” said her business partner and manager Pete Salgado. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2012.

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