CHICAGO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. judge has issued an order requiring Aeromexico and its regional airline Aeromexico Connect to preserve evidence from a plane crash last week.

The airline's Embraer 190 with more than 100 people on board crashed on July 31, shortly after taking off from an airport in the northern Mexican state of Durango during a severe storm.

All passengers survived the crash but suffered injuries. Many of them are U.S. citizens, with some living in the Chicago area.

Lawyers representing U.S. passengers said on Wednesday that a judge from Cook County Circuit Court required Aeromexico and Aeromexico Connect to preserve, protect and produce related evidence 30 minutes before the crash until 10 minutes after the crash.

The evidence includes the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder and any communications between the pilot and air traffic control, ground control and any Aeromexico personnel.

The judge's order came after a dozen U.S. passengers who survived the crash of Flight 2431 filed separate lawsuits in Chicago against the Mexico-based airline, alleging possible negligence during the take-off.

"This is the first step in helping all of the passengers on board Flight 2431 get answers about what went wrong, and, hopefully, those answers will also improve the safety of aviation for everyone," said Thomas A. Demetrio, co-founder of Corboy & Demetrio, a Chicago-based law firm representing the plaintiffs.