At least 100 people died after a plane crashed in Cuba on Friday, Reuters reported. The Boeing 737 domestic passenger plane crashed soon after taking off from the Havana airport. Only three women survived but they are in critical condition, reported BBC. The plane was carrying 104 passengers and six crew members, all of whom were Mexican. A majority of the passengers were Cuban.
The flight was on its way to the eastern city of Holguin. Local media reported that five of the people on board were foreigners and there were five children. The plane was almost completely destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire.
“We should expect that the news will not be good, as there are a high number of people who appear to have been killed,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said, adding that the fire from the crash had been put out and that the process of idetifying the bodies has begun. The cause of the crash was not immediately known, he added.
Cuba has declared two days of national mourning.
Authorities said the flight was nearly 40 years old and rented by Cubana from Aerolines Damojh, a small charter company.
Cuba’s last major aviation disaster was in November 2010. A Cuban airlines crashed on its way to Havana, killing all 68 people on board.
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