Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican officials looking into the plane crash that killed Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino have given the aircraft's data recorders to U.S. analysts, Communication and Transportation Minister Luis Tellez said.

Mexican investigators delivered the so-called black boxes to a laboratory at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board yesterday as they seek to determine why the plane plunged onto a Mexico City street Nov. 4, Tellez said in a news conference today. The crash killed all nine onboard and at least five people on the ground. Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the country's former chief drug prosecutor, also died in the crash.

The death of Mourino, one of President Felipe Calderon's closest friends and staunchest political allies, may weaken the president politically and compromise his battle against drug traffickers. Mourino, 37, was a key negotiator with the opposition and oversaw the fight against the cartels that have killed more than 4,000 people in Mexico this year.

``This contributes to the general feeling among the public that the situation is out of control,'' said Howard Campbell, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso and an expert on Mexico's drug war.

Tellez has said there's no evidence suggesting the crash was anything other than an accident.

Regardless of the cause, Mexicans will see it as yet another violent event tied to the drug war, which may erode support, Campbell said. Deaths have skyrocketed this year as the military battles cartels and gangs retaliate by beheading enemies, intimidating the public and attacking civilians.

Drug Prosecutor

Calderon, 46, promoted Mourino to interior minister, the country's No. 2 political position, in January. Mourino warned Sept. 23 that cartels were using their wealth to penetrate police forces and may be contributing funds to campaigns for next year's midterm elections.

Vasconcelos, the former top drug crime prosecutor in the attorney general's office, was the target of two assassination attempts earlier this year. A group of hit men who worked for drug kingpin Alfredo ``El Mochomo'' Beltran Leyva were arrested in connection with the plots.

The plane crashed in the Lomas de Chapultepec area of the capital. It had been flying at the correct altitude and following the proper flight path, Agustin Arellano Rodriguez, the transportation ministry's chief of navigation, said yesterday. The plane didn't make an emergency call before crashing, he said.

The black box data recorders, one that contains voice recordings and another that holds technical data, may reveal new information in five days, Tellez said today.

`Accident'

``We have no evidence that allows us to formulate a hypothesis that this isn't an accident,'' Tellez said at a news conference. ``We will investigate all possibilities, though.''

Reforma newspaper reported today, citing aviation experts, that the plane may not have obeyed orders from the control tower to slow down and may have gotten too close to a Boeing 767 aircraft flying ahead of it, which may have created ``wake turbulence'' that caused the pilot to lose control. Arellano Rodriguez said he had no information that backs the hypothesis.

Mexican officials showed radar images from the control tower at Mexico City's airport and played audio from communication between the tower and the pilot before the plane went down. Tellez said it was the first time the government had released this type of information to the public, part of an effort to be more transparent.

Interim Replacement

Calderon yesterday named Abraham Gonzalez Uyeda as interim interior minister. Gonzalez Uyeda was deputy interior minister. Mexican law says the interior minister is in charge of taking on the presidential duties when the president dies or is unable to govern, said Vidal Romero, a professor of political science at Mexico's Autonomous Technological Institute.

The crash may weaken Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, because the vacancy left by Mourino may lead to in-fighting, said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Mourino ran Calderon's campaign for president, and led negotiations with opposition lawmakers on a bill to open the state oil industry to private investment.

``Mourino was key in building the agreement,'' Hector Larios, the PAN leader in the lower house of Congress, told Mexico City-based Radio Formula. ``There's no doubt he obtained results.''

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which lost the presidency to Calderon's party in 2000 after ruling the country for more than 70 years, had as much as support as the PAN, according to an August survey by newspaper El Universal and polling group Buendia & Laredo.

Soccer Matches

Mourino was born in Spain. He played soccer with the president and other officials at the presidential palace on Sundays, Mexico's Quien magazine said in a profile in March. He was married with two sons and one daughter.

``His work was fundamental to advancing various reforms,'' Calderon said in a funeral service today. ``His loss is very significant for the Mexican state.''

The plane was on a landing approach 14 kilometers (9 miles) from Mexico City's airport just before 7 p.m. local time and crashed on one of the city's main thoroughfares in the midst of office towers. The explosion set dozens of nearby cars on fire.

The Learjet 45, built in 1998, had taken off from San Luis Potosi state, where Mourino signed an accord to boost security.

Officials from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, Learjet and the U.K.'s aviation authority are aiding the on-the-ground investigation.

Maintenance Records

Investigators are studying maintenance records going back three years, said Gilberto Lopez Meyer, head of airport and auxiliary services at the Communication and Transportation Ministry. There is no indication from what they have reviewed so far that there were any mechanical problems with the aircraft.

Campbell, the anthropology professor in Texas, said there likely will be public speculation that organized crime was involved in the crash, given the cartels' use of airport employees to help smuggle cocaine.

``Airports have been very critical points for drug trafficking in Mexico,'' he said. ``If there's infiltration of public institutions then there's certainly the possibility that this could be a deliberate attack.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Jens Erik Gould in Mexico City at jgould9@bloomberg.net; Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 6, 2008 14:27 EST