Toll in Cuba plane crash rises to 110

Havana, May 20 (IANS) The toll from Friday’s Boeing 737 crash in Cuba, close to Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport, has risen to 110, officials said.

Transportation Minister Abel Izquierdo told a press conference on Saturday that of the 110 dead, 99 were Cubans, 11 foreigners including 6 Mexican crew members, 2 Argentines, 1 Mexican and 2 temporary foreign residents, Xinhua news agency reported.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday visited the survivors and relatives of the victims the crash.

The Cubana airlines flight on Friday plummeted to the ground and burst into flames.

The Boeing 737, which was rented from Mexican airline Damojh, was carrying 113 people at the time of the accident, Yzquierdo said.

Diaz-Canel visited the three women who survived, but were in serious condition and receiving treatment at the Calixto Garcia Hospital in Havana, according to a national television news broadcast.

The President also met with the relatives of the victims as they arrived at the Forensics Institute in Havana to help identify their loved ones.

Authorities are investigating what went wrong with the domestic flight, which crashed shortly after taking off from Havana’s main airport on its way to the eastern province of Holguin.

The Cuban government arranged for the relatives to stay at a hotel, as most came to Havana from Holguin, around 700 km from Havana.

Flags were flying at half mast on Saturday as part of two days of mourning following the worst air disaster in Cuba in three decades.