This Article is From Nov 07, 2010

Cuba probes plane crash that killed 68

Cuba probes plane crash that killed 68
Havana: Cuban investigators have probed the country's worst plane crash in two decades, which killed all 68 people on board, including 28 foreigners.
    
The domestic Aerocaribbean aircraft crashed in the mountainous Sancti Spiritus region in central Cuba late on Thursday after the pilot reported an emergency.
    
Investigators found the "black box" voice and data recorders of airliner at the crash site, located some 400 kilometers east of Havana, on Friday.
    
By Saturday rescue crews had finished removing the remains of crash victims, which were transported to Havana for identification.
    
The plane, a twin turbo-propeller ATR-72-212 built by French-Italian manufacturer Avions de Transport Regional, was bound for Havana on a flight from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba when the pilot reported an emergency.
   
French ATR aviation experts will arrive soon to participate "as guests" in the crash probe, a spokesman for Cuban Institute of Civil Aeronautics (IACC) said.
    
"All the bodies are burned, except for two that were in the back of the plane," Sancti Spiritus public prosecutor Rolando Diaz.
   
"No body is missing. Apparently the passengers had no time to move because they all burned in their own seats," Diaz said.
    
Locals who rushed to help immediately after the crash said that the weather was good when the plane went down.
    
Forensic expert Jorge Gonzalez, best known for heading the team that discovered and identified the remains of iconic Argentine guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Bolivia in 1997, was in charge of identifying the bodies, state media reported.
    
Since the crash, a team headed by Gonzalez has "worked intensely" to remove the bodies, the local newspaper Escambray said.
    
Gonzalez said he would accept help from relatives of the victims during the identification process.
    
Victims included eight Europeans, two Australians, nine Argentines, seven Mexicans, a Venezuelan and a Japanese national, state media reported.
    
The Europeans included three Dutch, two Germans and one each from France, Italy and Spain.
    
The Austrian embassy said two Australians killed in the crash were initially mistakenly reported as Austrians, and Buenos Aires said the Italian was an Argentine citizen.
    
There were 40 Cubans on board, including the seven crew. It was the Communist-ruled island's worst air disaster in 21 years.

.