Cuba mourns after 107 die in jet crash

Havana: Cuba began two days of national mourning Saturday for victims of the crash of a state airways plane that killed all but three of its 110 passengers and crew. President Miguel Diaz- Canel said an investigation was under way into Friday’s crash of the Boeing 737. — AFP

Havana, May 19: Cuba began two days of national mourning Saturday for victims of the crash of a state airways plane that killed all but three of its 110 passengers and crew.

President Miguel DiazCanel said an investigation was under way into Friday's crash of the nearly 40- year- old Boeing 737, leased to the national carrier Cubana de Aviacion by a Mexican company.

Three women pulled alive from the mangled wreckage are the only known survivors.

The Boeing crashed shortly after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti airport, coming down in a field near the airport and sending a thick column of acrid smoke into the air.

The mourning period was to last to midnight on Sunday ( 0400 GMT on Monday), the Communist Party leader and former President Raul Castro said.

Flags were flown at half- mast throughout the country.

The plane was on a domestic flight from Havana to the eastern city of Holguin. Most of the 104 passengers were Cuban, with five foreigners, including two Argentines, among them.