Page 8 - aruba-today-20180519

A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 19 May 2018

Passenger jet crashes near Havana with at least 110 aboard

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ formal statement. Websites
MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN offering the firm's services
HAVANA (AP) — A Cuban- say it flies to Cuba and op-
operated airliner with at erates several 737 planes.
least 110 people on board Founded in 1990, the com-
crashed into a cassava pany operates under the
field just after takeoff from legal name Aerolineas
Havana's international air- Damojh, SA de CV.
port on Friday. There ap- Firefighters rushed to ex-
peared to be mass casual- tinguish flames engulfing
ties as Cuban officials said the Boeing 737, which was
three people had survived, meant to be on a short
but had yet to give an of- jaunt to the eastern Cuban
ficial toll. city of Holguin when it went
Authorities said there were down just after takeoff from
104 passengers and nine Jose Marti International Air-
foreign crew members port.
on the flight, operated by Government officials in-
Cubana de Aviacion. An cluding President Miguel Di-
employee of a Mexican az-Canel rushed to the site,
charter firm said the plane along with a large number
belonged to the compa- of emergency medical
ny and it had a six-person workers.
Mexican crew. Rescue and search workers on the site where a Cuban airliner with more than 100 passengers On Thursday, Cuban First
Residents of the rural site of on board plummeted into a yuca field just after takeoff from the international airport in Havana, Vice President Salvador
Cuba, Friday, May 18, 2018.
the crash a short distance Associated Press Valdes Mesa met with Cu-
from the end of the runway bana officials to discuss im-
told The Associated Press said. Beatriz Pantoja, whose lems in recent months. provements to its service.
they saw some survivors State media also reported daughter Leticia was on An employee who an- The airline is notorious for its
being taken away in am- there were three survivors. board the plane. Pantoja swered the phone at the frequent delays and can-
bulances, and a military of- Cuban officials did not ex- and other family members Mexico City office of Aero- cellations, which Cubana
ficer who declined to pro- plicitly say that everyone were rushed to a private linea Global Air said that blames on a lack of parts
vide his name said there else on board had perished area inside an airport termi- the Mexican crew included and airplanes due to the
were three survivors in criti- in the crash just after noon nal in the afternoon. a pilot and a co-pilot. The U.S. trade embargo on the
cal condition from the Cu- Friday. Cubana has placed many employee asked his name island.
bana airlines flight. "My daughter is 24, my of its planes out of service not be used as the com- Friday's crash was Cuba's
"It's a disaster," the officer God, she's only 24!" cried due to maintenance prob- pany had not yet made a third major accident since
2010. Last year a Cuban
military plane crashed into
a hillside in the western
province of Artemisa, killing
eight soldiers on board. In
November 2010, an Aero-
Caribbean flight from Santi-
ago to Havana went down
in bad weather as it flew
over central Cuba, killing
all 68 people, including 28
foreigners, in what was the
country's worst air disaster
in more than two decades.
The last accident involving
a Cubana-operated plane
was on Sept. 4, 1989, when
a charter flight from Ha-
vana to Milan, Italy, went
down shortly after takeoff,
killing all 126 people on
board, as well as at least
two dozen on the ground.
Cubana's director general,
Capt. Hermes Hernandez
Dumas, told state media
last month that the air-
line's domestic flights had
carried 11,700 more pas-
sengers than planned be-
tween January and April
2018. It said 64 percent of
flights took off on time, up
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel, third from left, walks away from the site where a Boeing 737 plummeted into a yuca field with from 59 percent the previ-
more than 100 passengers on board, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, May 18, 2018.
Associated Press ous year.q