bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Cuba began two days of national mourning on Saturday for victims of the crash of a state airways plane that killed all but three of its 110 passengers and crew.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said an investigation was under way into Friday’s crash of the nearly 40-year-old Boeing 737, leased to the national carrier Cubana de Aviacion by a Mexican company.

Three women pulled alive from the mangled wreckage are the only known survivors.
The Boeing crashed soon after taking off from Jose Marti airport, coming down in a field near the airport and sending a thick column of acrid smoke into the air.
Five miracles airline pilots pulled off that saved hundreds of people
The mourning period is to last from 6:00am on Saturday to midnight on Sunday, Communist Party leader and former president Raul Castro said. Flags are to be flown at half-mast across the country.

#BREAKING: Cuban TV have transmitted the video from the scene of the plane crash in Havana. pic.twitter.com/96Hz3Phj3h
— BreakingNNow (@BreakingNNow) May 18, 2018

The plane was on an internal flight from Havana to the eastern city of Holguin. Most of the passengers were Cuban, but five foreigners, including two Argentines, were among them.
The plane – carrying 104 passengers – was almost completely destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire. Firefighters raced to the scene put out the blaze along with a fleet of ambulances to assist any survivors.
Chinese airliner forced to land after cockpit window falls out
What appeared to be one of the wings of the plane was wedged among scorched tree trunks, but the main fuselage was almost entirely destroyed.
Built in 1979, the plane was leased from a small Mexican company, Global Air, also known as Aerolineas Damoj.

Plane crash in Cuba, American flight crashed shortly after take off #cuba #planecrash pic.twitter.com/W4IuiIaF1K
— Matt Blakeley (@blakeley1990) May 18, 2018

Mexico said it was sending two civil aviation specialists to help in the investigation. The six crew members were Mexican nationals.
The 58-year-old Diaz-Canel, who succeeded Castro as the communist island’s leader only last month, appeared aghast as he surveyed the recovery efforts, wearing a short-sleeved green shirt and surrounded by officials.

Castro sent condolences to families of the victims of the “catastrophic accident”, a statement read, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and a string of Latin American leaders also expressed sympathy.
The plane took off from Havana at 12:08pm on Friday heading for Holguin, 670km (415 miles) to the east.
Pickup truck strikes Southwest jet at Baltimore airport
From the supermarket where he works near the airport, Jose Luis, 49, said he could see the plane taking off before it banked and plunged to the ground.
“I saw it taking off. All of a sudden, it made a turn, and went down. We were all amazed,” he said.
Yasniel Diaz, a 21-year-old musician, said the pilot appeared to try an emergency landing, but crashed instead.
“The explosion shook everything,” he said. “I started running, I was so afraid.”

Images on Cuban television showed rescuers at the scene removing what appeared to be a survivor on a stretcher as rain began to fall.
Global Air said the plane was flying with a crew of six Mexicans – the pilot, co-pilot, three flight attendants and a maintenance technician.
In Mexico City, anguished relatives and colleagues of the crew gathered outside the company’s offices demanding information – some of them hugging and crying.
“I was friends with the captain, with the co-pilot, with the head flight attendant,” said a former Global Air employee, 44-year-old Ana Marlene Covarrubias. “When I heard the news on the phone, I thought it was one of those jokes people play.”

The Mexican communications and transport ministry said the plane was built in 1979. Global Air had the necessary permits to lease it, and had passed inspections in November last year, it said.
The company, formed in 1990, had a fleet of three planes, all Boeing 737s.
Before Friday’s crash, Cuba’s most recent air accident occurred in April 2017, when eight military personnel died when a Russian-made AN-26 transport aircraft went down in western Cuba.
The country’s last major airline disaster was in November 2010 when a Cuban Aerocaribbean jet crashed on a flight from Santiago de Cuba to Havana, killing all 68 people on board, including 28 foreigners.


US military laser tech and cartel drones stir airspace confusion in Texas

Trump administration blames Mexican cartel drones for triggering El Paso airspace shutdown

Malaysian airports face complaints over expensive food and goods

Cuba warns airlines it’s almost out of fuel as US blockade tightens chokehold

Aviation

More than 100 people killed after Cuban plane crashes in fireball near Havana airport

Police and military personnel work on the wreckage of the Boeing-737. Photo: EPA

Forensic investigators and Ministry of Interior officers sift through the remains of a Boeing 737 that 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. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)

The first secretary of Communist Party in the Cuban city of Holguin, Luis Antonio Torres Iribar (L), speaks with relatives of the victims of a plane crash, at Holguin airport, after a Cubana de Aviacion aircraft crashed after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti international airport on May 18, 2018. A Cuban state airways plane heading to Holguin, with 110 passengers and crew on board crashed shortly after taking off from Havana Friday, leaving a mass of twisted and smoldering fuselage, as the country's president warned many people were feared dead. Cuban state media reported that three people had been pulled alive from the mangled wreckage and were in critical condition in hospital. / AFP PHOTO / STR

TOPSHOT - Emergency personnel works at the site of the accident after a Cubana de Aviacion aircraft crashed after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti airport on May 18, 2018. A Cuban state airways passenger plane with 113 people on board crashed on shortly after taking off from Havana's airport, state media reported. The Boeing 737 operated by Cubana de Aviacion crashed "near the international airport," state agency Prensa Latina reported. Airport sources said the jetliner was heading from the capital to the eastern city of Holguin. / AFP PHOTO / Yamil LAGE

Emergency personnel at seen at the site of the accident after a Cubana de Aviacion aircraft crashed after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti airport on May 18, 2018. A Cuban state airways passenger plane with 113 people on board crashed on shortly after taking off from Havana's airport, state media reported. The Boeing 737 operated by Cubana de Aviacion crashed "near the international airport," state agency Prensa Latina reported. Airport sources said the jetliner was heading from the capital to the eastern city of Holguin. / AFP PHOTO / Adalberto ROQUE

More than 100 people killed after Cuban plane crashes in fireball near Havana airport

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Boeing 737 crashed soon after take-off in a field close near Jose Marti airport

Boeing 737 crashed soon after take-off in a field close near Jose Marti airport