Black box of crashed plane found in Cuba

Havana, Nov 6 (IANS/EFE) The black box and cockpit voice recorder of a plane that crashed in Cuba, killing all 68 people on board, have been recovered, a media report said.

Aero Caribbean Flight 883, en route to Havana from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, crashed late Thursday in the central province of Sancti Spiritus shortly after the crew reported an emergency and contact was lost.

Provincial chief prosecutor Rolando Diaz said authorities hope the contents of the recorders will shed light on the cause of the crash, the official AIN news agency reported Friday.

The plane, a twin-engine ATR-72, is used for regional and short-duration flights and has a maximum seating capacity of 74 people.

Cuban television and the government website Cubadebate released a list of the victims including 28 foreigners from 10 different countries who were aboard the plane.

The travellers from other countries included nine Argentines, seven Mexicans, three Dutch citizens, two Germans, two Austrians, a Spaniard, a French citizen, an Italian, a Japanese and a Venezuelan.

Cuba’s deadliest plane crash of the past three decades occurred in September 1989, when an Il-62 travelling to Milan went down in Havana shortly after take-off and killed all 115 on board and 40 people on the ground.

–IANS/EFE