CUBAN AVIATION authorities have set up a commission to investigate the cause of an aircraft disaster in a remote rural region of central Cuba in which all 68 people on board lost their lives.
Twenty-eight foreigners were among those killed when the Aero Caribbean aircraft came down and burst into flames on impact. The dead include several Europeans and the seven crew members. It is the worst crash in Cuba in more than 20 years.
According to official media the 28 foreigners on board included 17 Latin American nationals (nine Argentines, seven Mexicans, a Venezuelan), 10 Europeans (three Dutch, two Germans, two Austrians, one French, one Italian, one Spanish) and a Japanese national.
Local residents rushed through heavy brush to the crash site to offer help. A number of bodies were found nearby.
The Cuban civil aeronautics institute said the aircraft came down near the town of Guasimal in the province of Sancti Spiritus in central Cuba about half-way on its 900km flight between the two main cities of Santiago in the far east of the island and Havana in the west.
The institute said the ATR-72 twin turboprop aircraft, which was built in 1995, had reported an emergency before losing contact with air traffic control.
The crash is the worst in Cuba since 1989, when all 126 passengers died when an Ilyushin aircraft crashed after take-off in Havana.