GUASIMAL, Cuba (Reuters) – A Cuban Aero Caribbean passenger plane trailed smoke and flames as it hurtled through the sky before crashing in a central province, killing all 68 people aboard, eyewitnesses told Reuters yesterday.
They said the twin-engined ATR turboprop was flying low and appeared unstable as the pilot struggled to keep it in the air before it veered down and smashed into the ground on Thursday near Guasimal in Sancti Spiritus province, 210 miles (338 km) southeast of Havana.
Of the dead, 40 were Cubans, and the remaining 28 foreigners from 10 countries. The foreigners, many thought to be tourists, were almost all South Americans and Euro-peans, and also included one Japanese.
Local residents heard the explosion and saw the flames from the air crash, the worst in Cuba in two decades, which shattered the tranquillity of the small rural town.
“It passed very low over my house, pouring out smoke and fire, a loud noise,” said Kenia Diaz, who was buying bread when the plane passed over.
“Everybody came out running. My mama shouted ‘the war has come.’ It scared everyone,” she said.
Another resident, Mirelda Borroto, said she saw smoke coming from the plane, which was clearly in trouble.
“The plane was coming as if it was losing power, it wasn’t stable. He (the pilot) tried to raise it up and it began to spew white smoke,” she said.
After the crash, “we were afraid to get close to it because we didn’t know what could be on the plane,” Borroto said.
On Friday, rescuers were pulling bodies from the wreckage after using a bulldozer to plow through thick vegetation to reach the crash site.
The newspaper Escambray said experts from Cuba’s Civil Aviation Institute had arrived to investigate the cause of the accident, which was the island’s worst since 1989 when 126 people died in the crash of a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62 after takeoff from the Havana airport.
The government’s Cubadebate.cu website posted a photograph showing flames rising from the shattered wreck of the plane — a ATR-72-212 built by ATR, a joint venture of Europe’s EADS and Italian group Finmec-canica.
Authorities cordoned off the crash site and did not allow reporters to approach. A refrigerated truck and another carrying body bags were seen entering, witnesses said.
Aero Caribbean is a state-owned regional airline.
The plane’s manufacturer ATR also confirmed there were no survivors among the 61 passengers and crew of seven on board.
“At this time, the reasons of the accident are still unknown,” ATR said in a statement, adding it was cooperating with Cuban aviation authorities in the investigation.
It said Aero Caribbean had operated the plane since October 2006. It was delivered from the production line in 1995 and had accumulated almost 25,000 flight hours in more than 34,500 flights, ATR said.
The plane, Flight 883, left Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba en route to Havana and went down at 5:42 pm local time (2242 GMT). After making an emergency call, the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers.
The foreign victims included nine Argentines. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was sending a plane with relatives of the victims to bring home the bodies, an Argentine diplomat in Havana told Reuters.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero also sent condolences.