A Boeing 737 plane has crashed shortly after take-off on Friday from Havana's main airport, Cuban state media reported.
A worker at Havana's Calixto Garcia hospital has told Reuters that three survivors had arrived at the hospital but one had since died from burns and other trauma. The other two remain in a serious condition.
NBC journalist Mary Murray, who is at the scene, says the craft crashed in a large government-owned field near a neighborhood, but no homes had been touched. The accident occurred just after 12pm local time.
An eyewitness saw three people being pulled alive from the wreckage and they were transported out, according to the NBC news team.
Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel has visited the crash site and said that he feared that many people had died.
"The news is not very promising, it seems that there is a high number of victims," he was reported as saying.
Cuban state newspaper Granma has reported that a toddler around the age of two and four other children were on the doomed flight.
More details about casualties and their condition are yet to be released.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a division of The Boeing Company, said they were "closely monitoring the situation".
Around 104 passengers and nine crew are thought to have been on board the domestic flight, which departed from Jose Marti International Airport en route to the eastern city of Holguin, according to Cuban state-run TV.
"It crashed between the locality of Boyeros and the village of Santiago de La Vegas", it reported, referring to an area about 20 km south of Havana.
The craft was being operated by a foreign crew, Cuban diplomat Jose Ramon Cabanas said on Twitter. It is thought around six of them were Mexican.
Images on TV and social media show a large plume of black smoke looming above the airport where the crash happened.
It is thought the plane belonged to Mexican company Damojh Aerol'ineas, also known as Global Air, and was being leased to national airline Cubana de Aviaci'on.
The Mexican embassy in Cuba has also setup helplines in the wake of the crash, suggesting Mexican nationals may be among the casualties.
Follow our live updates here:
↧