Three survivors pulled from plane crash that killed more than 100
Only three people out of 113 passengers and crew are believed to have survived a fiery plane crash in Cuba, after the Boeing 737 went down moments after take-off.
The aircraft, on a domestic flight to Holguin, had 104 passengers plus nine crew, Cuban state-run media reported, adding that there were five children on board.
The fire from the crash had been put out and authorities were identifying bodies, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said. Earlier he had told Agence France Presse that “it appears there is a high number of victims.”
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, third from left, walks away from the site where a Boeing 737 plummeted into a yuca field with more than 100 passengers on board, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, May 18, 2018. The Cuban airliner crashed just after takeoff from Havana’s international airport on Friday. (AP Photo/Enrique de la Osa)
Wreckage was strewn over the area 20 km south of Havana and ambulances and firefighters were at the scene, a Reuters witness said. Blackened parts of the fuselage were visible.
“We heard an explosion and then saw a big cloud of smoke go up,” said Gilberto Menendez, who runs a restaurant near the crash site in the agricultural area of Boyeros.
Carlos Alberto Martinez, the director of Havana’s Calixto Garcia hospital, told Reuters four victims of the accident had been brought there. One had died and the other three were in a serious condition.
“She is alive but very burnt and swollen,” said a distressed relative of one of the survivors at the hospital.
The flight was destined for Holguin in eastern Cuba and was leased by airline Cubana from a small Mexican airline called Damojh or Global, Cuban state media said. Holguin has some of the island’s most pristine beaches, and attracts tourists.
Cubana declined to comment. A Damojh representative in Mexico said “we are gathering what we can to give correct information.”
The nationality of those on board was not immediately clear. State media said that the crew were foreign, but provided no further details.
Flight tracking websites indicated the flight was CU972, departing Havana at 11am (local time).
The last fatal crash in Cuba was in 2017, the Aviation Safety Network said. It was a military flight that killed all eight personnel aboard.
In 2010, a commercial Aero Caribbean plane crashed in central Cuba. All 68 people on board were killed.
