The Cuban government called two days of national mourning after over a 100 people died when a Boeing 737 airliner crashed just near Havana’s international airport. The plane was officially carrying 104 passengers. Four people only were transported to a hospital of which one has since passed. Three women are still fighting for their life.
Shortly after visiting the crash site, Cuban President Mr Miguel Diaz-Canel, overseeing the first major incident under his leadership, stated: "There has been an unfortunate aviation accident. The news is not very promising, it seems that there is a high number of victims."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Out of 104 airplane passengers, only 3 have survived. Here's what we know about Cuba's plane crash. <a href="https://t.co/a1UB2lLE24">pic.twitter.com/a1UB2lLE24</a></p>— AJ+ (@ajplus) <a href="https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/997659355167195136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Cuba has an abysmal air safety record and its aviation industry, which is old and lacks replacements parts, operates planes that would not be deemed airworthy in other countries on the American continent. The current event marks Cuba’s worst plane crash since 1980.
Related coverage: http://thegoldwater.com/news/26451-Breaking-Cuba-Passenger-Jet-Crashes-Just-After-Takeoff-in-Havana
It would appear the plane encountered a problem shortly after take-off already, as the Cuban transport department declared on their website that it ‘dived to the ground’ quite immediately.
A supermarket worker who witnessed the crash, Mr Jose Luis, declared: "I saw it taking off."
"All of a sudden, it made a turn, and went down. We were all amazed."
The plane in question, a Boeing 737- 200, belonged to the Mexican company Damojh (which currently operates as Global Air) and was being operated on behalf of state airline Cubana. It had been built in 1979.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UPDATE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UPDATE</a> Cuba declares two-day national mourning period after a plane with over 100 passengers crashed on Friday; the exact death toll is still unknown <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cubaplanecrash?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cubaplanecrash</a> <a href="https://t.co/uStndiG3CF">pic.twitter.com/uStndiG3CF</a></p>— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/CGTNOfficial/status/997646771835883521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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To help with inspections as to what went wrong, Boeing declared it would be sending a technical team to Cuba "as permitted under US law and at the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board and Cuban authorities."
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