Free Republic

Two civil lawsuits against the company that owns the private jet that crashed Sunday in northern Mexico -- presumably killing music star Jenni Rivera -- accuse the firm of lying about its links to a businessman convicted of falsifying maintenance records. Insurance firms QBE and Commerce & Industry Insurance Company filed suits this year seeking to rescind its contracts with aviation company Starwood Management because of alleged falsehoods. In short, the insurance companies claim that Starwood lied in its application for coverage about the history of the planes being insured and about the true owner of the company. Starwood is...

The small plane carrying Mexican-American music superstar Jenni Rivera plunged in a nose-dive from more than 28,000 feet and hit the ground at more than 600 mph, Mexico's top transportation official said. Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico's secretary of communications and transportation, offered a Mexican radio station the first detailed accounts of the moments leading up to the crash that killed Rivera and six other people aboard the Learjet on Sunday. The plane practically nose-dived," Ruiz told Radio Formulate. "The impact must have been terrible." Ruiz said the 43-year-old aircraft hit the ground 1.2 miles from where it began falling and...

The National Transportation Safety Board has been called in to help investigate the plane crash that killed singer Jenni Rivera and six others in northern Mexico over the weekend. Rivera, 43, had performed a concert in Monterrey, Mexico before boarding a Learjet25 early Sunday morning. The flight took off around 3:30 a.m. and was reported missing 10 minutes later after airport officials lost contact with the pilots, Mexican authorities said. Rivera’s makeup artist, lawyer and publicist, as well as the flight crew are all believed to be among those killed in the crash, CBS News reports.

MONTERREY, Mexico – Mexico's music world mourned Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer presumed killed in a plane crash whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles had made her a Mexican-American superstar. Authorities have not confirmed her death, but Rivera's relatives in the U.S. say they have few doubts that she was on the Learjet 25 that disintegrated on impact Sunday in rugged territory in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico