Bodies of Mexican plane crash victims recovered

The burned bodies of four men who died in a plane crash near the US-Mexico border have been recovered, Chihuahua state officials have said.

The victims were the Mexican and US directors of the International Boundary and Water Commission -- Arturo Herrera and Carlos Marin respectively; the executive director of the Rio Grande Council, Jake Brisbin; and the pilot.

The officials were flying over flooded border areas Monday when the pilot communicated a technical problem and the plane disappeared from radar, Mexican authorities said.

Their bodies were retrieved from the crash site Thursday. Herrera was to be brought to Cuidad Juarez, and the other three victims to El Paso, Texas in the United States, officials from the Chihuahua State attorney general's office said.

The US consulate here said Wednesday that the wreckage lay in mountainous territory, northwest of Presidio, Texas, some 20 kilometers (13 miles) inside Mexico.