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Smoke billows from burning vehicles amid a wave of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states, following a military operation in which a government source said Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as
Smoke billows from burning vehicles in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday.

@morelifediares via Instagram/Youtube/@morelifediares via REUTERS

  • Cartel violence has caused major disruption in parts of Mexico and triggered numerous flight diversions.
  • 39 flights headed to the resort of Puerto Vallarta and the city of Guadalajara were diverted on Sunday.
  • That included a five-hour journey that returned to Calgary, and two private jets.

Almost 40 flights were diverted on Sunday after cartel violence erupted in parts of Mexico.

The figure suggests that thousands of people will wake up in a different city than they expected on Monday morning.

The majority of the diverted flights, 30, were headed to Puerto Vallarta — a resort town on Mexico's Pacific Coast, which is particularly popular with American and Canadian tourists.

Around 370 flights in and out of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara have also been canceled on Sunday and Monday, according to data from FlightAware.

Another nine were bound for nearby Guadalajara, including an Aeromexico flight from Madrid.

Those passengers spent nearly 11 hours in the air before landing in Monterey, some 400 miles away from their destination, per data from Flightradar24. The airline didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside local working hours.

Of all the diversions, 24 returned to their origins, which is often known as a flight to nowhere.

They included two WestJet flights from Calgary to Puerto Vallarta, which took off about 30 minutes apart, per flight-tracking data. Both of them U-turned around 11 a.m. ET — one was near Albuquerque, and the other was over Colorado.

Passengers on the earlier flight were back in Alberta almost 5 hours after takeoff.

Two private jets heading to Puerto Vallarta were also diverted, according to data from Flightradar24.

One of them, a midsize Embraer Praetor 500, flew about an hour from Austin before turning around near Monterey and going back to where it started.

A Dassault Falcon 2000, owned by a fruit-and-vegetable wholesaler, took off from Chicago but U-turned over southern Texas and diverted to San Antonio. After an hour and a half on the ground, it returned to the Windy City, per flight-tracking data.

While no airports have been closed, roadblocks have led to flight cancellations in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, the US Embassy in Mexico said.

The US and Canada also urged their citizens to shelter in place.

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MAPPED: Mexico cartel violence forced dozens of flights to divert, including a …