Mexican-American singer Jenni
Rivera has died in a plane crash after the small jet she was travelling in went
down in northern Mexico, her father said.
A spokesman for the state
government of Nuevo Leon said investigators had found debris of Rivera's
Learjet, which disappeared from the radar 100km from the northern city of
Monterrey shortly after takeoff early on Sunday.
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.
Rivera's publicist, lawyer and
makeup artist were also aboard the plane. "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.
A mother of five, Rivera was a
renowned performer of the Nortena and Banda musical styles