Cuba confirms 110 dead in Friday's plane crash, 3 survivors in serious condition

HAVANA - Cuba confirms on Saturday that 110 were dead from Friday's Boeing 737 crash close to Havana's Jose Marti International Airport.

Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo told a press conference that of the 110 dead, 99 were Cubans, 11 foreigners including 6 Mexican crew members, 2 Argentines, 1 Mexican and 2 temporary foreign residents.

Up to now, only 15 bodies have been identified, the minister said, adding officials were working intensively to identify the rest of the victims, whose remains were transferred to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Havana.

Yzquierdo said the three survivors of the tragic accident have been identified as Mailen Diaz, 19, Gretell Landrovell, 23, and Emiley Sanchez, 39.

They are receiving specialized medical attention at the Calixto Garcia University Hospital in the capital, and their condition is critical.

One of the plane's two black boxes has been recovered in good condition, specifically the one with the voice recordings, and investigators continue to sift through the rubble for the second one containing flight data, Yzquierdo said.

Representatives of the aircraft's manufacturer are arriving to help in the investigations, as are international experts, to determine what caused the crash.

The aircraft leased by Cubana airlines from the Mexican company Damojh, crashed a little past noon on Friday, minutes after taking off from Terminal 1 of Havana's Jose Marti International Airport.

No Chinese victims in Cuba plane crash

A source from the Chinese Embassy in Cuba told Xinhua that there were no Chinese nationals on board the ill-fated Boeing 737 which crashed Friday during taking off at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana.

The embassy said this after preliminary communication with the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said the source.

A total of 111 people were on board the aircraft, including 104 passengers and an infant. There were also six crew members of Mexican nationality, according to Transport Minister Adel Yzquierdo.

So far, only three women survived the crash, all still in serious condition.

The Cuban government declared two days of mourning from 6:00 am (1000 GMT) on Saturday to Sunday midnight.

The plane, rented by local company Cubana de Aviacion from the Mexican airline Damojh, crashed shortly after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport on Friday. The plane was a Boeing 737-201 built in 1979, according to a statement issued Friday by the Transport Ministry.

In his statements to local television, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced that investigations to clarify the causes of the accident are still in progress.

Two experts would fly to Cuba on Saturday to take part in the investigation, according to Mexican aviation authorities.

Friday's crash was Cuba's third major accident since 2010.

Last year, a Cuban military plane crashed into a hillside in the western province of Artemisa, killing eight soldiers on board.

In November 2010, an AeroCaribbean flight from Santiago to Havana went down as it flew over central Cuba, killing 68 people, including 28 foreigners.