Cubans mourn plane crash dead; officials ID 20 bodies

HAVANA — At morgues and in church services, tearful Cubans on Sunday mourned loved ones who died in the country’s worst air disaster in three decades.

Island authorities said they have identified 20 bodies and recovered all human remains from the field next to Havana’s international airport where a passenger jet crashed Friday, killing 110 people.

Cuba’s chief forensics official, Jorge Gonzalez, said all families had been contacted and asked to provide blood and objects such as photographs and tooth- brushes that could be used in identifications.

He said the number of bodies recovered by authorities matches the tally of those on board, accounting for three Cuban women who were the only survivors and are hospitalized in serious condition, so it is believed none are unaccounted for.

Gonzalez said many of the bodies were affected by the trauma of the crash, the flames and the heat, and the identification process could take at least 30 days.

The Boeing 737 belonging to a Mexican charter company and hired by Cu- ban state-run airline Cubana de Aviacion veered sharply shortly after takeoff from Havana on Friday afternoon and crashed in a fireball in a cassava field. Its destination had been the eastern city of Holguin.

It was carrying 107 passengers — mostly Cubans and also five foreigners — and a six-person flight crew from Mexico. Some family members of the Mexican victims arrived in Cuba late Saturday to assist in the identifications.

Cuba has declared two days of mourning over the disaster, whose cause is under investigation.

DESMOND BOYLAN/AP Grieving relatives of passengers who died in the Cubana de Aviacion airliner crash last week wait for the identification of their loved ones’ bodies at a morgue Sunday in Havana. Three female passengers survived the crash that killed 110, officials said.