Shortly after takeoff, Cuba plane crashes leaving 100 dead

Cuba, May 19: In aging airliner carrying 110 people crashed shortly after take-off from Havana airport in Cuba on Friday, leaving just three survivors in the country's worst aviation disaster in three decades.

 

The 39-year-old Boeing 737 had taken off on an internal flight when it went down into a cassava field not far from the end of the runway just after midday, bursting into flames and leaving huge plumes of black smoke.

Miguel Diaz-Canel, the Cuban president, visited the scene immediately and said: "There is a high number of people who appear to have died. "Things have been organized, the fire has been put out, and the remains are being identified."

Flight DMJ 0972 was headed to the eastern Cuban city of Holguin when it plummeted into in an agricultural area in the Santiago de las Vegas neighborhood at 12:08 p.m., according to Granma. Vice Minister of Transportation Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila said there were 105 passengers on board, including one infant. Five passengers were foreigners and 100 were Cuban, he said.

Argentina's Foreign Ministry said two passengers were Argentine.

A local resident reported that he was drawn out of his home by the "enormous noise" the plane made on takeoff. He said the plane appeared to swerve to one side and revved its engines before crashing.

Five crew members on board were Mexican nationals, according to Mexico's Civil Aviation Authority. Global Airline, which operated the flight, said there were six crew members, all Mexican nationals.

The nearly 40-year-old Boeing 737-200 was owned by the Mexican airline Aerolíneas Damojh and leased to Cubana de Aviacion, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The charter flight "suffered a failure" and crashed about six miles from the airport.