A plane being used for a gender reveal in Mexico plunged into the waters off of Cancun, killing two people on board as the expectant parents and their family and friends looked on in horror.
The group was all on a boat watching the flyover of the plane — streaming a sign announcing the baby is a girl — in the Nichupte Lagoon off the coast, The Sun reported.
In a video, the group can be heard exclaiming, “It’s a girl!”
But then things turned dark.
“One of the crowd even joked: ‘It’s all good as long as it doesn’t end up crashing into us,’” the Sun reported. “Seconds later, the joyous mood took a drastic turn as the partygoers noticed the plane take a dramatic nosedive into the water. … ‘Surely this can’t be happening!’ one shocked attendee shouted.”
The Navy was called to the scene. One person was pronounced dead at the scene, and another person died while receiving first aid. An investigation is underway into the cause of the crash.
It’s not the first time someone has died in a gender reveal, when family and friends gather to find out the sex of a baby.
An expectant father in upstate New York was killed last month when a device he was constructing for a gender reveal party exploded, according to state police.
Christopher Pekny, 28, was building the device to reveal his child’s gender in the Catskills town of Liberty when it blew up. The blast killed Pekny and injured his brother, Michael, 27, who was treated for his injuries at the Garnet Medical Center in Middletown, according to USA Today.
“The Robin Hood diner in Livingston Manor, which has been owned and operated by the Pekny family since the 1980s, mourned the loss of Christopher in a statement,” the paper said. “We are deeply saddened and must inform you all of the loss of our dear and beloved Christopher,” the family wrote on Facebook. “We appreciate the overwhelming display of love and support that you all have shown.”
Peter Pekny, the two men’s elder brother, told The New York Times that the blast was “the freakiest of freak accidents that I could ever imagine.” He also said he didn’t know what caused the explosion, and police released no other details, although similar devices shoot out a pink-or-blue burst to reveal the sex of the baby.
The soon-to-be father was “incredibly close” with his brother Michael and excited to soon be a father, Peter Pekny told The Washington Post.
Also last month, a 26-year-old Michigan man died after he was struck by shrapnel from a cannon being used at a baby shower.
And in September 2020, a gender reveal pyrotechnic device ignited a massive wildfire in southern California. A smoke device deployed at the El Dorado Ranch Park in California started a wildfire that burned for 23 days across 22,000 acres and led to the death of a firefighter.
In another accident, debris from a homemade explosive used for a gender reveal struck a woman in Iowa and killed her in October 2019.