Guasimal, Cuba: A state airliner filled with Cubans and travellers from Europe and Latin America has crashed and burst into flames in a mountainous area after declaring an emergency and losing contact with air traffic controllers, the island's worst air disaster in more than 20 years.
All 40 Cubans and 28 foreigners aboard died, authorities announced early on Friday.
AeroCaribbean Flight 883 was en route from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba to the capital when it reported an emergency at 5:42 p.m. local time Thursday, then lost contact with air traffic controllers.
It went down near Guasimal, a village in Sancti Spiritus province, carrying 61 passengers and a crew of seven.
Cuba's Civil Aviation Authority issued a statement hours later saying there were no survivors.
Havana: A Cuban airliner flying from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba to the capital crashed in a mountainous area after declaring an emergency Thursday evening with 68 people aboard, including 28 foreigners, state media reported. There was no immediate word on whether any survived.
State television did not give a breakdown of nationalities of the 28 foreignerssaying the names of those on board would be released later.
Rescue workers were at the scene and had recovered the first bodies, according to the local state-run newspaper Escambray. It said they were also searching the rugged area for survivors.
A photo posted on the paper's Web site showed a large piece of the plane in flames, with rescue workers in olive-green military uniforms standing around it. It said the local Communist Party chief as well as Interior Ministry and other officials were at the scene helping with the rescue effort.
The twice-a-week flight goes from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to Santiago de Cuba to Havana. It had been due to land in the Cuban capital at 7:50 pm but reported an emergency and subsequently lost contact with air traffic controllers.
State media said that the plane was an ATR-72 twin turboprop and that the crash site was not far from the Zaza reservoir, the largest in Cuba. It said authorities had mobilised doctors and emergency workers in the rural area, which is about 350 kilometres east of Havana.
At Havana's national terminal, relatives of those on board the plane were kept isolated from other passengers and journalists.
"This is very sad," said Caridad de las Mercedes Gonzalez, who was manning an airport information desk. "We are very worried. This has taken us by surprise."
State media gave no details on what happened to the airliner, saying only that the cause of the crash was being investigated.
