By Tomas Bravo
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - A cargo aircraft crashed late on Tuesday near the airport in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, killing six people, Mexican emergency authorities said.
The Airbus A300 aircraft, operated by privately held AeroUnion, crashed on a road leading into the airport after an aborted landing. Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the accident on Wednesday morning.
"The five crew members died in the accident and another person on the ground was part of the calamity," Civil Aviation Director Hector Gonzalez told the Milenio TV network.
It was not immediately clear how the person on the ground was killed but Mexican media said the plane may have hit a vehicle as it crashed on the road.
Emergency services initially reported two people on board the aircraft and three on the ground were killed.
Operations at the Monterrey International Airport, operated by Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, were normal on Wednesday, according to the aviation authority.
Partially burnt wreckage from the aircraft was visible on the road leading into the airport in an area near several hotels, a Reuters witness reported.
The jet, which was carrying cargo from Mexico City to the wealthy manufacturing city of Monterrey, crashed approximately 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) from the airport.
"We don't have a probable cause of the accident ... we know there was heavy rain and some fog, but that did not impede operations," Gonzalez said.
Prior to the crash AeroUnion operated three A300s, transporting cargo within Mexico as well as to Los Angeles and Chicago in the United States.
(Additional reporting by Armando Tovar and Veronica Gomez in Mexico City; writing by Robert Campbell, editing by Jackie Frank)
