Mexico City (CNN) -- The helicopter crash in Mexico that killed Interior Minister Jose Francisco Blake Mora and all seven other people aboard shows no evidence of an explosion, a Mexican official said Saturday.





"In visual and preliminary investigations of the crash site, the remains of the aircraft do not show evidence of any kind of damage from an explosion or fire," said Dionisio Perez-Jacome, minister of communication and transportation.





"It is worth mentioning that according to the available information up until this moment, present at the place and time of the incident were layers of clouds and reduced visibility," Perez-Jacome said.





His announcement on government television came as Mexico began a day of grieving for the eight killed Friday in the helicopter crash in a rural area just south of Mexico City.





Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife were among the government officials at a public funeral in Mexico City on Saturday afternoon.





The eight caskets were each draped with the Mexican flag on the vast green grounds of Campo Militar Marte where Calderon led a tearful ceremony of handing portraits of the eight helicopter victims to their respective families and children. A military band played sorrowful dirges, as did a drum and bugle corps at other points in the funeral.





"Here, in the earth, their example and memory will endure forever," Calderon told the black-attired mourners in the galleries and grandstand, all on their feet during the ceremony.





"These are difficult times for the government and for the nation, but it is also a time to show the strength to overcome these adversities," Calderon said.





The Friday incident -- which occurred 2.5 miles south of the town of Santa Catarina Atoyzingo in the municipality of Chalco -- evoked comparisons to a 2008 plane crash that also killed the country's then-interior minister.





That crash, in a luxurious Mexico City neighborhood, was later determined to be an accident caused by turbulence. The Learjet carrying the minister and others was following a commercial airliner too closely, authorities said.





Calderon on Friday called Blake Mora "a great Mexican who deeply loved his country and served until the last moment of his life."





Analysts said that the crash puts renewed attention on the president's controversial efforts to fight the nation's notorious cartels because the interior minister oversees domestic security.





"The national mood is such that even before this, people are alarmed" about cartel violence, said Stephen Zamora, professor at the University of Houston Law Center who's an expert on Mexican law and U.S.-Mexico relations.





"Calderon is in the last year of his presidency, so Mexico is entering a presidential election year just as the United States is. President Calderon has been criticized because the number of persons killed has escalated during his presidency and so people see him as failed. I think that's a harsh judgment," Zamora said.





"He inherited a country, especially in the northern states, that is being destabilized by the drug cartels. He's started employing the army, which hasn't been used much domestically, to fight the drug cartels," Zamora said.





While Blake Mora was well regarded by U.S. officials, his loss won't devastate the Calderon administration, said Pamela K. Starr, associate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California.





"I think there's an inevitability that there will be speculation that organized crime was involved in this, but it seems highly unlikely to me that indeed will be the case," Starr said, noting how the helicopter crashed under foggy conditions in a remote area.





"He was very highly thought of both within Mexico and with his counterparts in the United States," Starr said of Blake Mora. "With that said, he has not been one of the central figures in the battle against drug cartels in Mexico. The lead has been taken more by the federal police and the president himself, along with the military and the prosecutor's office."





The helicopter went down in the Xochimilco area south of Mexico City, government spokeswoman Alejandra Sota said.





Two other government officials were killed in the crash:
Which area did the crash happen? What type of aircraft was involved? How many other people died? Who is the president? What did the president say? What was the Mexican minister called? What type of aircraft was it?
just south of Mexico City. helicopter seven Felipe Calderon "Here, in the earth, their example and memory will endure forever," Jose Francisco Blake helicopter
question: Which area did the crash happen?, answer: just south of Mexico City. | question: What type of aircraft was involved?, answer: helicopter | question: How many other people died?, answer: seven | question: Who is the president?, answer: Felipe Calderon | question: What did the president say?, answer: "Here, in the earth, their example and memory will endure forever," | question: What was the Mexican minister called?, answer: Jose Francisco Blake | question: What type of aircraft was it?, answer: helicopter