The Aero Caribbean flight was headed for Havana from the city of Santiago de Cuba in the country’s south-eastern part when it crashed in a mountainous area. Reports said the pilot of the ATR-72-212 twin turboprop made an emergency call before the plane crashed just outside the town of Guasimal, Sancti Spiritus province.
A government website posted the names of the people on board. The plane was carrying 40 Cubans and 28 foreigners, according to the website, which also posted photographs of the crash site and the burning debris of the plane. The Cuban aviation institute said an investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the crash, the worst in the country since an Ilyushin-62M plane crashed in 1989 while on its way to Havana, killing all 126 people onboard.
