Crash of old jet reflects a Cuban airline in crisis
Business struggling with tourism surge and poor economy.
Azam Ahmed and Kirk Semple MEXICO CITY — Almost 40 years old by the time it crashed Friday just outside of Havana, killing more than 100 people, the aging Boeing 737 had changed ownership nearly a half-dozen times, passing from operators in the United States to Canada, from Cameroon to the Caribbean.
“I actually flew that exact plane,” said John Cox, head of the consultancy Safety Operating Systems, who traced the aircraft’s ownership back to 1979, when it was new and belonged to Piedmont Airlines, his former employer.
Though the cause of the crash has not been determined, the plane itself is a powerful symbol of Cuba’s troubled aviation industry. As tourism to the island surges, Cuba’s national airline finds itself struggling to acquire enough planes to meet the demand and maintain its decrepit fleet.
Cuba’s economy has long been in shambles, and experts say the troubles plaguing its aviation sector stem from the same obstacles that have bedeviled the country for decades: economic mismanagement and the U.S. embargo of the island.
Cuba’s problems have gotten so bad that, a few weeks ago, the country grounded most of its domestic flights because of safety concerns over its fleet. To continue flying, officials have been forced to lease planes from foreign outfits that sometimes use decades-old planes, like the one that crashed and burned right after takeoff Friday, killing nearly everyone on board.
The old Boeing 737 had been leased to Cubana de Aviación, the state airline, by a relatively unknown Mexican company with just three aircraft in its fleet. Some aviation industry analysts were taken aback at the plane’s advanced age.
“That’s one of the oldest passenger jets I have heard of that is still in service,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of the Teal Group, an aviation and aerospace consulting company in Virginia.
Though Mexican officials said the plane had passed safety inspections as recently as November, it is one of just 100 of its model still in circulation across the globe, reflecting the limited options the Cuban government has in order to continue operating its state airline.
“Whether the airline is going to survive is an open question,” said George Farinas, a retired Delta pilot who works as a civil aviation inspector and is writing a book about the history of Cubana de Aviación. “They are in a major crisis right now.”
Farinas said that Cuban officials even decided in the past against working with the Mexican company, Damojh Aerolíneas, also known as Global Air, after the flight crew that came with the lease got lost in the air on one trip. But they eventually reversed the decision, he said, “probably out of desperation.”
Analysts sometimes disagree about which is more to blame for Cuba’s troubled aviation industry: the U.S. embargo of the island or the country’s own history of economic mismanagement.
Some experts say the sanctions have crippled the nation’s ability to gain access to the vendors and financing needed to get new aircraft. The Cubans themselves have made the case numerous times, blaming the decadesold sanctions for their aging planes, which include Russian-made aircraft that are difficult to find parts for.
“If it were not for the embargo, they would be able to access a robust capital market for financing Western aircraft,” said Samuel Engel, senior vice president at ICF Consulting and an expert in the international airline industry.
But many analysts say that, while a process is involved, Cuba can indeed get access to such markets, as well as planes.
“The embargo does play a role in inhibiting business with Cuba, but there are policies to promote the sale of aircraft,” said Dallas Woodrum, an associate at Akin Gump in the firm’s Washington office. “Whether businesses decide to take advantage of that is a different question, and a matter of their risk tolerance and what type of reward they see.”
Cuba also suffers from a cash flow problem that further hinders the purchase of international goods — a product of the sanctions but also, critics say, its poor stewardship of the economy.
“The challenge is that they don’t manage the industry well,” said Emilio Morales, president of the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group, which focuses on the Cuban economy. “The business requires capital; it requires financing to maintain the planes.”
Friday’s crash occurred just after noon, following the plane’s departure from Havana for the eastern city of Holguín. Emergency workers and nearby residents raced to the scene, where the battered remnants of the plane kicked up plumes of thick smoke, trying to rescue survivors.
Ramiro Santana Martínez, 46, a construction worker who lives about 50 yards from the crash site, said he was near his house when he heard an explosion, quickly followed by a second one.
He joined neighbors and strangers who converged on the smoldering husk of the plane, looking for survivors. Santana said charred bodies, some dismembered, were scattered across the site; some had been thrown clear of the wreckage.
A volunteer rescuer spotted movement under some fallen branches: a woman’s hand. Santana and others rushed to help pull the crying woman out and get her to an ambulance. She was burned and bloodied but conscious.
Santana said he also helped pull out two other people, both men, who were breathing at the time but inert. Cuban officials said three women ended up surviving the crash, though they were in grave condition.
Among those on board the plane were five crew members, all Mexican. As part of its contract, Cubana hired them to operate the aircraft, an agreement known as a wet lease. As of late Friday, there was no specific mention of the crew’s condition.
Leticia Nuñez, the sister of the flight’s captain, Jorge Luis Nuñez Santos, said her family had heard only the information reported in the media and had not received any further details. Nuñez said she assumed the worst, but was still waiting for official confirmation of her brother’s death.
“Sometimes crew members change, someone gets in late — we don’t lose hope, we can’t,” she said in an interview over Facebook.