Deadly jetliner crash in Cuba
The incident appears to be nation’s deadliest in nearly three decades
More than 100 are feared dead after a Boeing 737 went down soon after takeoff from Havana. At least three people aboard survived.
MEXICO CITY — More than 100 people were feared killed Friday when a Boeing 737 passenger jet on a domestic flight in Cuba crashed shortly after takeoff from Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, officials and news reports said.
Only three survivors, all women listed in critical condition at a Havana hospital, were pulled from the crash site in an agricultural area close to the airport. A fourth person who survived the initial crash reportedly died at the hospital.
The flight was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew members, officials said. Authorities had not yet released the names or nationalities of those on board.
Earlier, authorities had reported that the plane carried a total of 104 or 105 people, but officials later updated the total to 114. At least five passengers on board were minors, including an infant, authorities said.
Officials were trying to identify the bodies, Cuban President Miguel DiazCanel said on national TV.
The president offered condolences to the victims and said that response to the crash had been "immediate." A special commission would investigate the incident, he said.
Casualties were confined to those in the plane and no injuries were reported on the ground in the agricultural district of Boyeros, where the aircraft went down.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.
The official news outlet Granma reported that all but 11 people aboard the flight were Cuban nationals, but it did not identify the nationalities of the foreigners.
The flight was on a domestic route from Havana, the capital, to the eastern city of Holguin.
The jet was leased by Cuba’s national air carrier, Cubana Airlines, from a Mexican air charter company known as Global Air, authorities said.
Video from the scene showed smoke billowing from the crash site and emergency crews wheeling a victim to an ambulance and dousing flames emanating from the wreckage.
Friday’s crash appeared to have been the deadliest in Cuban aviation history since 1989, when an Italy-bound charter crashed, killing all 126 on board and others on the ground.