Over 100 killed as Boeing jetliner crashes in Cuba
HAVANA, May 19, 2018
More than 100 people have died after a Boeing 737 airliner crashed near Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, reported BBC citing Cuban state media.
The plane was carrying 110 passengers and crew, according to the Mexican firm from which the plane was leased.
Two days of national mourning have been declared, after Cuba's worst air disaster since the 1980s.
According to state media, the Boeing 737-201 crashed at 12.08 (16.08 GMT) on Friday, shortly after taking off from Havana on an internal flight to Holguin in the east of the island.
Three female passengers are in critical condition after surviving the crash into thick vegetation just miles from the runway, repotrted CNN citing the state-run newspaper Granma.
Earlier Friday evening, Granma reported that one of the three survivors had died. Shortly afterward, Granma issued a correction, saying that all three women are alive.
There were six Mexican crew members on board; the passengers were mainly Cuban, with five foreigners among them, state-run website Cubadebate reports.
"There has been an unfortunate aviation accident. The news is not very promising, it seems that there is a high number of victims," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said after visiting the crash site.
The plane had been leased to state airline Cubana de Aviación by the Mexican company Aerolineas Damojh.
The Mexican authorities said the plane was built in 1979 and had been successfully inspected last November. Aerolineas Damojh, also known as Global Air, has three planes in operation.
Boeing said that it was ready to send a technical team to Cuba, "as permitted under US law and at the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board and Cuban authorities". A US trade embargo has been in force against Cuba for many decades.
