Huge explosion shook everything: Cuba plane crash witnesses
havana — It happened in the tropical lull that is Havana’s midday, usually a time for lunch and rest.
A tremendous noise broke the calm: the crash of a passenger aircraft that had just taken off from the capital’s airport.
“The explosion shook everything,” recounted Yasniel Diaz, who was near the airport and saw the plane fall to the ground and smash into it.
The cause of the crash of the Boeing 737, a 39-year-old aircraft leased from Mexican company Aerolineas Damojh to state carrier Cubana de Aviacion and flying a domestic route with more than 100 passengers on board, has yet to be determined.
But Diaz, a 21-year-old musician who had spent the night on a farm in the vicinity, said: “I was going home
I was going home and I saw the plane and the pilot was flying to the right, he lost altitude and went down. At one point, I saw the plane try to land, but obviously it couldn’t Diaz, A witness
and I saw the plane and the pilot was flying to the right, he lost altitude and went down.” “At one point, I saw the plane try to land, but obviously it couldn’t,” he said. When the explosion happened on impact, “I started running because I felt scared. Then I saw people coming from a village to help,” he said.
The plane had been headed to Holguin, a city on the east of the island of Cuba. Despite the disaster, Havana’s airport continued working.
Cuba’s President Miguel DiazCanel, who had only taken power from former leader Raul Castro on April 19, arrived at the scene to voice fears that there were many dead.
State media reported that there were three survivors pulled from the mangled and smoking wreckage, all in critical condition.
Two kilometers from the crash site, Yosvany Sarmientos was riding a bicycle with his son.
“I felt the boom and saw the smoke rising. I had been riding with the boy and I told him, ‘Look son, that’s a plane that’s crashed,’” he said. — AFP