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MORE THAN 100 people on board the Cuban State airways plane have been killed after the airliner crashed shortly after taking off from Havana.
Cuban state media reported that three women had been pulled alive from the mangled wreckage and were in critical condition in hospital.
They were the only known survivors from the nearly 40-year-old Boeing 737, operated by Cubana de Aviacion. It crashed into a field close to a wooded area near Jose Marti airport, sending a thick column of acrid smoke into the air.
The 110 people aboard included six Mexican crew, said the Mexico-based company that leased the plane, Global Air, also known as Aerolineas Damojh.
Two victims were Argentine, the country’s foreign ministry said. Most of the others were Cuban, according to state media.
The plane – carrying 104 passengers – was almost completely destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire. Firefighters raced to the scene along with a fleet of ambulances to put out the blaze, as emergency personnel combed through the wreckage.
What appeared to be one of the wings of the plane was wedged among scorched tree trunks, but the main fuselage was almost entirely destroyed.
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who visited the scene, said an investigation has been opened into the disaster, and that its findings would be made public as soon as possible. A press conference is scheduled for 7pm today.
The 58-year-old president, who succeeded Raul Castro as the communist island’s leader only last month, appeared aghast as he surveyed the recovery efforts, wearing a short-sleeved green shirt and surrounded by officials.
He said an investigation into the cause of the accident was underway.
Cuba declared two days of national mourning.
Raul Castro sent condolences to families of the victims of the “catastrophic accident,” a statement read, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and a string of Latin American leaders also expressed sympathy.
‘The explosion shook everything’
Airport sources said the plane took off at 12:08pm (5.08pm Irish time) heading for the eastern city of Holguin, 670 kilometres away.
From the supermarket where he works near the airport, Jose Luis, 49, said he could see the plane taking off before it banked and plunged to the ground.
“I saw it taking off. All of a sudden, it made a turn, and went down. We were all amazed,” he said.
Yasniel Diaz, a 21-year-old musician, said the pilot appeared to attempt an emergency landing, but crashed instead.
“The explosion shook everything,” he said.
I started running, I was so afraid.
Images from Cuban television showed rescue workers at the scene removing what appeared to be a survivor on a stretcher as rain began to fall.
Anguished relatives
Global Air said the plane was flying with a crew of six Mexicans – the pilot, co-pilot, three flight attendants and a maintenance technician.
In Mexico City, anguished relatives and colleagues of the crew gathered outside the company’s offices demanding information – some of them hugging and crying.
“I was friends with the captain, with the co-pilot, with the head flight attendant,” said a former Global Air employee, 44-year-old Ana Marlene Covarrubias.
“When I heard the news on the phone, I thought it was one of those jokes people play,” she told AFP.
Mexico said it had sent two civil aviation specialists to help in the investigation.
The Mexican communications and transportation ministry said the plane was built in 1979. Global Air had the necessary permits to lease it, and had passed inspections in November last year, it said.
The company, formed in 1990, had a fleet of three planes, all Boeing 737s.
Prior to Friday’s crash, Cuba’s most recent air accident occurred in April 2017, when eight military personnel died when a Russian-made AN-26 transport aircraft went down in western Cuba.
The country’s last major airline disaster was in November 2010 when a Cuban Aerocaribbean jet crashed on a flight from Santiago de Cuba to Havana, killing all 68 people on board, including 28 foreigners.
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I’m pretty sure James Joyce is the literary equivalent of revolut, those you have read it look down on those who haven’t and those who haven’t don’t see what the fuss is about.
@Gerard Martin: well said. It made me smile
@Gerard Martin: Revolut’s pretty handy though and I’m not exactly loaded
@Gerard Martin: it’s actually the opposite. Those who have had read Joyce are looked down upon by those who haven’t. And those who have read him understand what the fuss is about.
@michael: and those who said they have read and finished it are liars.
@Breda Kelly: Ulysses.
@Breda Kelly: Nice passive-aggressive sweeping statement. I’ve read it and finished it. Not all in one go mind. Am I a liar?
@Breda Kelly: absolute nonsense. I have read three times over a long period and ad a Dub enjoyed it hugely.
@Breda Kelly: There was no category for “tried but didn’t finish”. Had that been available, it might have been the top answer. For many of us “yes” is the technically correct answer to the question posed but “no” is the more honest answer.
@michael: Well said. People should maybe approach Ulysses through an audiobook. It’s a lot of fun :)
@michael: You just endorsed the comment Gerard posted.
People should try ‘Dubliners’ first, Ulysses is a far bigger challenge.
@James Walsh: Yeah, this is definitely a good approach.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a good read and Dubliners is a nice collection of short stories. Neither have the infamous ‘Joyce an prose’, that stream of consciousness style that is so difficult.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist do have stream of consciousness but not to the extent of Ulysses (or the impossible Finnegan’s Wake). They’re both really accessible and enjoyable to read.
Where’s the option for “I tried but couldn’t manage it and gave up”
Worth reading Dubliners and specifically The Dead even if you’re not inclined to try out the other novels.
YES
@KilkennyProud: I said I will yes.
NO
have read the Dubliners, the dead and half of ulysees; gave up on ulysees as whilst could admire the descriptive detail, book is just not enjoyable; the dead is similar but shorter; Dubliners much better read.
would compare joyce to uncle colm from derry girls, a lot of rambling stories with no real narrative an little interst to majority listening
@Steve Clancy: the Dead is one of the short stores in Dubliners, is it not?
A better poll would be:
1. “Have you ever started to read Ulysses?”
2. “Did you finish it?”
@Ronan Quinlan: I use my copy as a doorstop, always a silver lining.
I have read and loved Ulysses. The language is beautiful and evocative. I find all of the hype and hot air about Joyce around this time of year intensely irritating. Joyce himself probably would have had great fun making fun of the whole Bloomsday lark.
Parts of Ulysses are easily read and enjoyable. I particularly like the scene in the pub at Glasnevin where the Citizen (said to be based on Michael Cusack, a founder of the GAA) swears at Leopold Bloom for saying that Jesus had been a Jew.
@Patrick Brompton: The pub in the Cyclops episode of Ulysses that includes that encomtrr between Bloom and the Citizen is Barney Kiernan’s in Little Britain Street, sadly no longer a pub.. An empty shell of a building.
No but I’d like to (but will never bother).
Read The Dead and you will understand the fuss. Only 60 pages long.
Yes I’ve read Dubliners, it’s quite accessible and not difficult to read, plus it’s short stories so you can read it in bite sized pieces, as it were.
I got as far as halfway through the first chapter of Ulysses. I was proud of that.
half way through Ulysses audio book , quite an experience . really enjoyable.
Dubliners is very enjoyable. I read it first as a teenager and he highlighted all the traits I hated in adults.
Portrait of the Artist is the best place to start ..
So many characters in Ulysses of the type still thriving today. Joyce even anticipated the safe-in-their-bubble know-alls of the commentariat here who end their comments with a “Jesus Wept.”
This from Chapter 3 of Ulysses: His pace slackened. Here. Am I going to aunt Sara’s or not? My consubstantial father’s voice. Did you see anything of your artist brother
Stephen lately? No? Sure he’s not down in Strasburg terrace with his aunt
Sally? Couldn’t he fly a bit higher than that, eh? And and and and tell us,
Stephen, how is uncle Si? O, weeping God, the things I married into! De
boys up in de hayloft. The drunken little costdrawer and his brother, the
cornet player. Highly respectable gondoliers! And skeweyed Walter sirring
his father, no less! Sir. Yes, sir. No, sir. Jesus wept: and no wonder, by
Christ!
My mam was delighted I was born on Bloomsday yet neither of us have read it as far as I know – I certainly haven’t anyway
Would it be as hard to read as Tolstoy’s War and Peace? incidentally, Tolstoys original title to War and Peace was ‘War, What Is It Good For? Thats how the song came about!
@Pauline Gallagher: Easier character names than Tolstoy’s, there’s that.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: ah ok. I was joking about the book title btw.
The Most Dangerous Book in the World about how difficult it was to get Ulysses published is very interesting
Trying to read Ulysses at the moment. Cannot get the hang of it at all. I’ve three chapters read and it just appears to me to be the insane ramblings of a semi-senile old idiot. Nothing makes sense in it, no story line. Will probably finish it just to be able to say that I have read it. How it is regarded as the greatest novel of the 20th century is beyond me. Nora Barnacle was right when she said to him “why don’t you write books that people can read”. This book to me is totally unreadable. I dread to think what Finnigans Wake is like.
@John Cassin: if you want a traditional storyline there’s literally millions of other books to choose from, I think it’s safe to say that Joyce was trying something different with Ulysses. He wasn’t senile or old when he wrote it, it’s all very carefully put together. I’d recommend listening to the RTE audiobook first, but if you really hate it just don’t read it. Simples.
@John Cassin: I read it in a group at a library with a coordinator who was familiar with the book (and probably an expert). Pretty sure I would never have read it on my own. If you have to go it alone maybe read online summaries of the chapters first. You could probably skip a few and come back to them another time.
It’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ NOT ‘Finnegan’s Wake’. It was surely that apostrophe that hastened the good man’s end.
Yes, but I preferred Beckett.
Yes I said yes I have yes.
Ulysses..complete drivel….give me Irvine Welsh anytime
I actually read 1000 pages of it and gave up. Lets be franks, it is impenetrable b*ll*cks. You can clearly see why Joyce is lauded, but it really is just a trudge. My version of it had a 250 page introduction. There is also a stint without full stops for God knows how many pages.
Posters here seem to be mixing “read Joyce” with read Ulysses”
I have read Dubliners and really enjoyed it, got through 100 pages of Ulysses, kinda liked it but have a life so wasn’t motivated to read the final 899 pages, might do one day though.
have your say