An aging Boeing 737 with 110 people aboard crashed and burned shortly after taking off from Havana’s airport, leaving three survivors and investigators sifting through debris for clues as to what caused the airliner to go down.Fire crews and ambulances rushed to the scene, while images posted on social media showed a thick column of smoke rising above the crash site. The passenger plane, on a domestic flight to Holguin in eastern Cuba, crashed at 12:08 p.m. (1608 GMT). There were 105 passengers, including five children, plus crew members, state media reported. 
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said a special commission had been formed to find the cause of the crash.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (Center in the picture above) said a “high number” were feared dead.
Of the 104 passengers, mainly were Cuban passengers and six crew members who are believed to have been Mexican. A statement from Mexico’s Transportation Department identified the pilot and co-pilot as Captain Jorge Luis Nunez Santos and first officer Miguel Angel Arreola Ramirez. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said two of its citizens had died in the crash.
Four crash survivors were taken to a Havana hospital, and three remained alive as of late Friday as one sadly passed on upon arrival at the hospital. Three others, all women, were in a serious condition, he said. “She is alive but very burned and swollen,” said one of the women’s relatives at the hospital.
State airline Cubana, which operated the flight, has had a generally good safety record but is notorious for delays and cancellations and has taken many of its planes out of service because of maintenance problems in recent months, prompting it to hire charter aircraft from other companies. The airline blames its spotty record on a lack of parts and airplanes because of the US trade embargo against the communist-run country.
Mexican officials said the Boeing 737-201 was built in 1979 and rented by Cubana from Aerolineas Damojh, a small charter company that also goes by the name Global Air. Investigations are ongoing to ascertain the real cause of the accident for official documentation.
2018 is turning out to be a very bad year for aviation. After having gone through an accident free 2017 for commercial passenger airlines, 2018 is a different case altogether.
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