Cuba mourns 107 killed in plane crash
HAVANA (AFP) — Cuba yesterday began two days of national mourning 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 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 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 began at 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) yesterday and will last until midnight today, the Communist Party leader and former president Raul Castro said. Flags are flown at half-mast throughout the country.
The plane, which was on a domestic flight, took off from Havana at 12:08 p.m. (1608 GMT) last Friday and headed for Holguin, 670 kilometers to the east. Most of the passengers were Cuban, with five foreigners, including two Argentines, among them.
From the supermarket where he works near the airport, Jose Luis, 49, said he could see the plane taking off before it banked and plunged to the ground.
“I saw it taking off. All of a sudden, it made a turn, and went down. We were all amazed,” he said.
The plane, which carried 104 passengers, was almost completely destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire.
Firefighters raced to the scene to put out the blaze along with a fleet of ambulances to assist any survivors.
What appeared to be one of the wings of the plane was wedged among scorched tree trunks, but the main fuselage was almost entirely destroyed.
Built in 1979, the plane was leased from a small Mexican company, Global Air, also known as Aerolineas Damoj.
Mexico said it was sending two civil aviation specialists to help in the investigation. The six crew members were Mexican nationals.