22 May 2018

Death toll of Cuba plane crash rises to 111

8:03 pm on 22 May 2018

The death toll of Cuba's deadliest air disaster in 30 years has risen to 111 after one of the survivors has died of her injuries.

A relative of one of the victims of the plane crash in Havana, Cuba, that killed 111 people.

A relative of one of the victims of the plane crash in Havana, Cuba, that killed 111 people. Photo: AFP

Grettel Landrove, 23, was a flamenco dancer and student engineer.

The news comes on that same day that Mexico's civil air authority suspended the operations of a company that owned the plane involved in the crash.

Officials said in a statement that Aerolíneas Damojh was under "extraordinary verification". The charter company had leased the aeroplane in question to Cuban state airlines Cubana de Aviación.

Speaking to the BBC outside the hospital, Ms Landrove's mother, Amparo Font, described her daughter as a fighter. But her death was announced shortly afterwards.

Ms Landrove was one of three initial survivors of Friday's crash. The other two - Mailen Diaz, 19, and Emiley Sanchez, 39 - remain in critical condition, according to reports.

It is Cuba's deadliest air disaster in 30 years. The plane was reportedly built in 1979. One former pilot said it had dropped off radar once, while another alleged that maintenance was poor.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (second from right) at the site of the accident after a Cubana de Aviacion aircraft crashed after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti airport on 18 May, 2018.

Photo: AFP

The Mexican General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) statement, in Spanish, said the authority would seek information to help the crash investigation.

It said Aerolíneas Damojh was subject to previous investigations: In 2010, due to a crash in Puerto Vallarta, and in 2013 following a complaint from an airline pilot.

The authority had run "annual checks" on Aerolíneas Damojh, the statement said, with the most recent in November 2017. All aircraft had to renew their airworthiness certificates every two years.

The head of Guyana's civil aviation body,captain Egbert Field, told the Associated Press news agency that the plane had been barred from using Guyanese airspace last year after authorities found its crew were overloading luggage on flights in Cuba.

In one instance Guyanese authorities had discovered suitcases stored in the plane's toilets.

The plane crashed after taking off from Havana airport. It was a scheduled internal flight to the Cuban town of Holguin.

All six crew members were Mexican, while the majority of passengers were Cuban.

An Argentine couple and two passengers from the dispute territory of Western Sahara were also killed, as was a Mexican tourist.

- BBC