Mexican authorities probe charter company in Cuban disaster

Mexican authorities will investigate the company that owned an aging Boeing 737 involved in Cuba’s worst air disaster in almost three decades. Media outlets reported Mexico’s national civil aviation authority would conduct the review into charter operator Aerolineas Damojh to make sure it is complying with regulations It will also collect information for the investigation into Friday’s fiery crash involving 113 passengers and crew. Cuban officials over the weekend released a list of passengers and crew involved in the crash and increased the death toll to 110 as they recovered the cockpit voice recorder in good condition. Three women survived the crash but are in a critical condition. Cubana de Avacion was wet leasing the aircraft —where the airline leases the plane as well as the crew — in a move the country’s Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez attributed to the US trade embargo against the island. The plane was almost 39 years old and first flew on July 15,  1979. READ: Boeing's 737, the plane that almost never was. The Transportation Minister said maintenance of the aircraft was the responsibility of the Mexican charter company. Cuba did not have pilots certified for Boeing 737s so it had hired the Mexican crew in the expectation they were fully trained and certified, he told reporters. Witnesses said the aircraft, flying from Havana to Holguin in eastern Cuba, lost height and veered to the right shortly after take-off.  It hit a house, trees and railway track and burst into the flames. Eyewitness Rocio Martinez told the Associated Press she heard a strange noise and looked up to see the plane with an engine on fire. "In flames, here it comes falling toward the ground and it seems (the pilot) saw it was an area that was too residential and makes a sharp turn," Martinez said. "To avoid (the houses) ... to avoid a tragedy, because there would have been a massacre." The Mexican investigation came as the AP revealed Damojh had been the subject of two safety complaints over the last decade. The news agency said the Domojh plane involved in the accident was barred from Guyana’s airspace last year after authorities discovered its crew had been allowing dangerous overloading of luggage on flights to Cuba. An experienced Cubana pilot also said Cuban aviation authorities had recommended that Cubana stop leasing planes from Damojh after a serious incident in which a plane dropped off the radar over Santa Clara. The Mexican Foreign Ministry confirmed seven Mexicans, including six crew, were killed in the crash. "The Foreign Ministry is in ongoing communication with Cuban officials through the embassy there and is closely following these tragic events,'' it said in a statement. "It again expresses its sympathy to the Cuban government and people."