XB-BAR: Both Pilots Die as a Cessna Citation Crashes in Nayarit, Mexico, and Prosecutors Probe a Possible Attack

A Cessna Citation I/SP registered XB-BAR crashed in the mountains near Ixtlán del Río in the western Mexican state of Nayarit on Sunday, October 4, 2026, killing both pilots. The jet had left Tepic for Aguascalientes, and rescuers found the wreckage on Monday.

The Nayarit state prosecutor said the investigation cannot rule out that Governor Miguel Ángel Navarro, who occasionally used the aircraft, was the intended target. The cause of the crash has not been determined, and nothing published so far shows that the aircraft was attacked.

What is known about the flight

Regional broadcaster NTV reported that the jet took off from Tepic’s Amado Nervo International Airport at about 4:30 p.m. local time. Contact was lost roughly 18 minutes later.

Flight-tracking data cited by NTV indicates the aircraft changed its heading and appeared to be turning back toward Tepic before the signal disappeared. Emergency crews, state police and firefighters reached the site near the community of Los Mezquites on Monday, in terrain NTV described as difficult to access.

N+ identified the dead as pilot Óscar Quezada and copilot Ricardo Granados. The owner and operator of XB-BAR have not been named in the sources reviewed.

The prosecutor’s statement

Speaking on October 5, the Nayarit state prosecutor said the office would keep investigating whether the crash was connected to an attempt on the governor’s life, according to El Financiero. The prosecutor also said mechanical failure or weather could be responsible.

The prosecutor pointed to phones seized from a suspected organized-crime member arrested before the crash, which the prosecutor said held aircraft registrations, flight schedules and passenger details. Uniradio Informa reported that the aircraft was occasionally used by the governor, who was not on board.

The aircraft and who investigates

The Citation I/SP is an early light twinjet from Cessna. According to Wikipedia’s type history, it was certificated for single-pilot operation, is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-1B turbofans and was built between 1971 and 1985 across Citation I variants.

That makes XB-BAR an aircraft decades old. Age alone says nothing about this crash, and no maintenance record has been published.

Mexico’s federal civil aviation authority, the AFAC, is responsible for the technical side. El Financiero reported that it will recover the wreckage and apply its protocol, including a review of the black box. The state prosecutor’s office is running its own inquiry in parallel.

That split matters for readers waiting on answers. The technical investigation decides whether the jet suffered an engine, systems, weather or crew problem, while the criminal inquiry asks whether anyone interfered with it or planned to.

A Libyan Citation case covered earlier is another recent case where prosecutors and the operator publicly disagreed about the evidence.

AeroCorner will update this story if the AFAC or the prosecutor’s office publishes a cause, an operator or a preliminary finding.