No survivors reported in Cuba plane crash

The plane crashed in a mountainous region of Cuba after issuing an emergency call, Cuba’s state-run media said.

The plane is understood to be an ATR-72-212 twin turboprop aircraft flown by state-owned Aero Caribbean airlines. Witnesses described the scene of the crash as a “ball of flame in the middle of the mountain”. Rescue workers are now searching for survivors amid the dense vegetation.

‘No survivors’

Local reports suggested 40 Cubans were on board the aircraft, including seven crew, and 28 foreigners. The plane left Santiago de Cuba en route to Havana at 5.42pm local time, before making an emergency call, then losing contact with air traffic controllers and ultimately going down, near the town of Guasimal in Sancti Spiritus province.

An employee at the Guasimal hospital told Reuters there were no survivors.

“They called just now and said there are no survivors but I don’t know if it’s true,” the employee said.

The crash follows yesterday’s near miss in Singapore, when a Qantas Airbus A380 made an emergency landing after one of its engines shut down in midair. The plane had 459 people on board and no one was hurt. Investigators are now looking into the cause of the crash, which Qantas said “may have been” caused by a design fault.