More than 100 people have died after an aging Boeing 737 carrying 104 passengers and six crew crashed into a nearby field shortly after taking off from Havana’s main airport.
In a televised address on Friday afternoon, the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, offered his condolences to victims’ families and said an investigation into the disaster had been launched.
Witnesses said that the 39-year old airliner veered back towards the airport less than a minute after takeoff from Jose Martí international airport, but became ensnared in electricity cables before crashing down.
“When we were checking in, we heard an explosion, the lights went out in the airport and we saw black smoke rising – and they told us a plane had crashed,” Argentine tourist Brian Horanbuena told the Associated Press at the airport.
At the scene of the crash near the town of Santiago de las Vegas, thick black smoke plumed out of the torn wreckage which was scattered across a field of cassava.