Air tragedy in Cuban skies. A Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff from Havana airport, carrying 104 passengers and five crew members. Only three people, all women, survived but are in hospital in very serious conditions.
At 12.08 (19.08 in Italy), flight CU 972 of Cubana de Aviacion, the Cuban national airline, operated with a Boeing 737-200 of Damojh Aerolineas, a Mexican low cost company based in Guadalajara, crashed in a sown field of Puerto Boyeros, a short distance from the José Martì Airport and 13 kilometers from the center of the capital, shortly after taking off from Havana to head towards Holguin, in the east of the island. On board the aircraft were traveling 104 passengers and five - and not nine, as previously disclosed - crew members, all Mexicans.
The three women who survived the accident – another injured died on arrival at the hospital – are all of Cuban nationality, like most of the passengers. Only five would be foreigners, including a naturalized Italian woman, according to Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party. Help arrived quickly, and the flames from the plane fire were quickly controlled, thanks in part to the rain. President Miguel Diaz-Canel personally visited the disaster site a few hours later, and in a short televised message he said that "today is a day of mourning for our country".
[smiling_video id="55287″]
[/smiling_video]
No passenger list has been released so far, but Global Air - owner of Damojh Aerolineas - has communicated the names of the crew members. The Mexican embassy in Havana has arranged special measures to accommodate the relatives of the victims. Diaz-Canel announced the immediate creation of "a special commission, which has already opened an investigation into the facts", promising that "we will provide all the information" to public opinion.
According to testimonies of local inhabitants, collected by the local media, shortly after its take-off the Boeing would have made a sharp turn towards the first terminal of the airport. Local witnesses argue that at that moment the aircraft may have hit high voltage wires.
