107 killed in Cuba disaster
3 survive fiery plane crash
MORE THAN 100 people aboard a Cuban airliner died when their jet fell to earth in a fiery crash Friday moments after taking off from Havana’s international airport.
Only three women, one reportedly a Cuban national, survived the catastrophe, said Granma, Cuba’s main staterun newspaper.
All three survivors were in critical condition at Calixto García Hospital, Granma reported.
The jet, a Boeing 737 operated by Cubana de Aviación, had just left Jose Marti International Airport on a flight to the eastern city of Holguin when it plummeted into a field around 12 p.m., according to the Associated Press.
State TV said the jet veered sharply to the right after takeoff.
Area residnets helped rescue crews find the crash site, Granma reported. Firefighters rushed to extinguish the flames that engulfed the debris field.
“There is a high number of people who appear to have died,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the AP from the scene. “Things have been organized, the fire has been put out, and the remains are being identified.”
A total of 105 people were aboard the flight, including one infant and four children, Granma reported.
All but five passengers were from Cuba, the newspaper said.
Passengers’ relatives gathered at the terminal, waiting intently for any news.
“My daughter is 24, my God, she’s only 24!” cried Beatriz Pantoja about her daughter Leticia.
Diaz-Canel said a special commission had been formed to investigate the cause of the crash, the AP reported.
“The only thing we heard, when we were checking in, an explosion, the lights went out in the airport and we looked out and saw black smoke rising and they told us a plane had crashed,” Argentine tourist Brian Horanbuena told the AP.
The Boeing 737 was built in 1979 and rented by Cubana from a small charter company called Global Airlines, Granma reported.
The crew members, all Mexicans, were identified as Capt. Jorge Luis Nunez Santos, first officer Miguel Angel Arreola Ramirez, and flight attendants Maria Daniela Rios, Abigail Hernandez Garcia and Beatriz Limon, according to Granma.
Outside Global Air’s Mexico City offices, former flight attendant Ana Marlen Covarrubias said she had worked for the company for more than seven years and knows nearly all the crew members.
“I don’t have the words. I’m very sad. We’re in mourning,” Covarrubias told the AP.
“It was something really, really, really terrible; a tragedy for us.”Mexican aviation authorities said a team of experts would fly to Cuba Saturday to take part in the investigation.
Cubana de Aviación has a generally good safety record but is notorious for delays and cancellations.