A passenger plane with 113 occupants crashed in Cuba

Cuban state media reported on Friday, May 17, that a Boeing 737 aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from José Martí Airport, the main airport in Havana, the capital of Cuba. According to reports from Cuban state television, the plane had 104 passengers and 9 crew members and was on a local flight to the city of Holguín. Reports indicate that the crash site is between the Boyeros area and the village of Santiago de las Vegas, about 20 kilometers south of Havana. According to Cuban media, the number of casualties from this incident is still unclear, but Miguel Díaz-Canel, the President of Cuba, who visited the crash site, stated that "it seems that the number of victims is high." Initial images sent from the site show thick black smoke rising from the crash area, and firefighters and ambulances are quickly approaching the scene. This aircraft belonged to the airline "Cubana de Aviación," and Cuban state television reports that the crew of this plane is "foreign," but did not provide further details. Last year, a Cuban military plane crashed into a hill in the west of the country, killing eight military personnel on board. On November 4, 2010, a passenger flight from "Aero Caribbean" crashed in central Cuba due to bad weather, killing all 68 occupants. This was the deadliest aviation accident in the country in two decades.