About 100 Feared Dead in Cuba Plane Crash

Passenger jet went down near Havana airport
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted May 18, 2018 3:45 PM CDT
About 100 Feared Dead in Cuba Plane Crash
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel, third from left, walks away from the site where a Boeing 737 crashed.   (AP Photo/Enrique de la Osa)

Cuba is dealing with an aviation disaster Friday after a passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Jose Martí International Airport in Havana. The Boeing 737 carried 105 passengers and nine crew members, reports Reuters, and state TV says that only three people survived, per the New York Times. Five of those aboard the flight to Holguin on the eastern part of island were kids. The plane was being leased by Cuban airline Cubana de Aviación. "We will have to wait and see, because the news is not promising," said new Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who offered his condolences in a televised address. The plane went down in a farm field, and there was no early word on the cause. (More plane crash stories.)

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