A plane crashed in a lagoon in Cancun, Mexico Tuesday, killing the two pilots on board, multiple news outlets reported. The crash happened shortly after the plane was involved in a gender-reveal stunt, but it's unknown if that was the cause of the crash.
The expecting parents and guests watched from a boat on Nichupte Lagoon when the plane was carrying a banner revealing the child was a girl, according to Global News. But a separate report from ABC News indicated there was pink smoke coming from the plane to indicate the reveal.
As this video from the boat shows, the plane then passed by and its nose went down before crashing into the water. One person reportedly died in the crash while the other was rescued, but later died.
The U.S. Sun reports the plane was a Cessna rented from a company called Xomex. The pilot was the owner, according to Mexico's Quequi News.
There have been other gender reveals in recent years that have directly resulted in disaster. But it's not yet clear in the Cancun incident if the act meant to reveal the gender was directly responsible for the crash or if there was some other reason.
A 2020 Labor Day weekend gender reveal near Los Angeles used a pyrotechnic device that was supposed to send blue or pink smoke to reveal the gender. It started a forest fire that burned more than 22,000 acres and killed a firefighter.
Shrapnel from a gender-reveal device in Iowa in 2019 killed a 56-year-old woman after police said the family "inadvertently built a pipe bomb." A metal base plate flew 45 feet before hitting Pamela Kreimeyer in the head, then continued for another 144 feet.
In February, police said a New York man was trying to build his own gender-reveal bomb when it exploded, killing him.
Another gender-reveal bomb in Arizona in 2017 led to a wildfire that burned almost 47,000 acres and did $8 million in damage. Dennis Dickey, the man hosting the reveal party, reportedly agreed to five years probation and $220,000 in restitution.
The practice of gender reveal parties is credited to Jenna Karvunidis, a parenting blogger who has since said she regrets having started the trend. She also noted in a 2019 Facebook post something that people might not have expected. "Plot twist! The baby from the original gender reveal party is a girl who wears suits. She says 'she' and 'her' and all of that, but you know she really goes outside gender norms."
