Plane with 68 crashes in Cuba; no survivors reported

HAVANA. November 5. KAZINFORM A passenger plane crashed in central Cuba on Thursday night, killing all 68 people onboard, the Cuban civil aviation authorities said; Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The ATR-72 twin turboprop plane of the state-run Aero Caribbean airline crashed near the town of Guasimal, 355 km east of Havana, in the central Sancti Spiritus province, the Civil Aeronautics Institute of Cuba (IACC) said.

There were no survivors, the IACC said in a statment.

The ATR-72, a French-Italian made aircraft, is mainly used for regional flights and short trips.

The Flight 883, with 61 passengers and seven crew members including 28 foreigners onboard, was flying to Havana from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba at 4:45 pm (2145 GMT).

The plane issued an emergency call before it lost contact with the control tower at 5:42 pm local time (2242 GMT).

Among the foreigners onboard were three Dutch nationals, two Germans, two Austrians, a French, an Italian, a Spaniard, a Japanese, nine Argentines, seven Mexicans and a Venezuelan, the IACC said.

The official website Cubadebate.cu said that one body has been recovered. "Until now there is no survivor," journalists from Guasimal town near the crash site said on Twitter; Kazinform cites China Daily.

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