Two people killed in horrific gender reveal party plane crash
Two people have died after their plane crashed into the sea during a gender reveal party in Cancun, Mexico on 30 March 2021. (Twitter/EnElAire)
A gender reveal party ended in tragedy as a plane carrying a banner crashed into the sea, killing two people on board.
The tragic incident occurred over the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Cancun, Mexico around 3.30pm on Tuesday (30 March).
The expectant couple and their guests were watching the small aircraft from a boat, according to the US Sun.
In footage posted to social media, guests can be heard exclaiming “It’s a girl” as the plane flew across the ocean with a sign revealing the unborn baby’s gender.
The US Sun also reported that one person joked: “It’s all good as long as it doesn’t end up crashing into us.”
But the party took a horrifying turn after the aircraft appeared to rapidly lose power and crashed into the sea as onlookers watched in terror. One reportedly said: “Surely this can’t be happening.”
Personnel from various emergency services rushed to rescue the pilots but one died during the rescue effort, Francisco Fernández Millán, president of the Nautical Association of Quintana Roo, said in a statement to La Prensa Latino.
Emergency services reported that a second person was rescued from the crash, but the individual later died on dry land while receiving first aid from paramedics.
Local media La Jornada reported that there had been between two and four passengers aboard the plane. The plane had taken off from Holbox, approximately 40 miles outside of Cancun, and was flown by the company Xomex, which was hired by the family for the gender reveal stunt.
The Federal Civil Aviation Agency is investigating the incident.
The crash follows numerous other tragedies tied to gender reveals. In February, a young father-to-be in New York was killed in an explosion while assembling a device for the gender reveal of his child. Another man from Michigan died after he sustained fatal injuries when a cannon exploded at a gender reveal party.
Pyrotechnics at a gender reveal party in California resulted in a deadly wildfire in 2020. The wildfire resulted in some 3,000 homes being evacuated and decimated more than 7,000 acres of lands.
