No Survivors in Cuban Plane Crash

Added by Annika L. Krugel on November 6, 2010

A government website has confirmed that all 68 passengers on board the Aero Caribbean flight that on Thursday crashed into mountains in central Cuba died in the crash.

The plane, Aero Caribbean Flight 883, left Santiago de Cuba, in eastern Cuba, and crashed en route to Havana at 5:42pm local time. The pilot issued an emergency call but the plane lost contact with the air traffic controllers.

The names of the 40 local passengers and 28 foreigners from 10 different countries have been published on the government website www.cubadebate.cu, including the seven crew members.

The site also showed a photograph of what was left of the plane; an ATR-built ATR-72-212 twin turboprop. The plane was, with its 15 years in service, one of the youngest planes of the state-owned regional airline.

Witnesses on the ground reported that the plane made “several brusque movements before falling to the ground,”. It crashed in an area covered in thick vegetation near Guasimal in the Sancti Spiritus province. Bulldozers had to clear a path for rescuers to be able to get to the crash-site.

The incident is the worst in the country since the 1989 accident in which a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62M bound for Italy crashed soon after take-off from Havana, killing all 126 passengers on board.