This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (May 21, 2018).
By Santiago Pérez and Anthony Harrup
U.S. and Mexican aviation experts are joining an investigation
of the crash of a Boeing 737 charter flight outside Havana that
killed more than 100 people, Cuban authorities said, as allegations
emerged that the airline had previously been warned about safety
violations.
Cuban authorities have identified the remains of 20 of the 110
victims of Friday's crash while a team of local and foreign
investigators focused on the possible causes of the disaster and
the operations of the Mexican company that owned the plane, which
crashed shortly after takeoff on a flight to the eastern Cuban city
of Holguín.
The only survivors of Friday's crash, three women passengers,
are in critical condition at the Calixto García Hospital in central
Havana, while the remains of the first identified victims were
being delivered to relatives in Holguín, authorities said.
The Boeing 737-200 crashed in a field and burst into flames
shortly after taking off from the Havana airport on Friday. Cuba's
transport minister, Adel Yzquierdo, said 110 of the 113 passengers
and crew were killed.
Authorities said five children were among the victims identified
over the weekend, and that identification of the dead could take
days.
Cuban officials said that following a request from U.S.
authorities, a team from Boeing Co. would be permitted to join the
investigation. Boeing has said a technical team stood ready to
assist at the direction of U.S. and Cuban authorities.
Mexican investigators are already participating in the probe
because the aircraft, built in 1979, was leased by Mexican charter
airline Aerolíneas Damojh to flagship carrier Cubana de Aviación,
which has an aging fleet and has recently taken many of its planes
out of service.
"We will provide all the necessary assistance so they can do
their job," Mr. Yzquierdo told Cuban state media.
Damojh was responsible for maintenance and operation of the
aircraft, Mr. Yzquierdo said. "We had rented this plane less than a
month ago. We keep all the documentation which shows that the crew
was certified and fit," he added.
Mr. Yzquierdo said Cubana de Aviación was leasing aircraft from
foreign companies in part because the U.S. embargo against the
Communist island hindered the state-owned carrier's ability to buy
planes.
The Mexican government said it would carry out a new audit of
the airline's operations to determine if it was meeting
regulations, and to gather information that could help identify the
cause of the crash.
The airline was inspected in November and found to be following
proper maintenance procedures, the Communications and Transport
Ministry said on Friday. Before the crash, Damojh, set up in 1990,
had three planes, two Boeing 737-300s and the 737-200.
Marco Aurelio Hernández, a pilot who worked for Damojh from 2005
to 2013, told Mexico's Milenio newspaper that he had repeatedly
reported maintenance problems to the owner, including engine
trouble and electrical system failure. Airline officials declined
to comment on the assertion.
Mr. Hernández said he had worked before with Jorge Luis Núnez,
the captain on Friday's ill-fated flight.
Guyana's director of civil aviation, Egbert Field, told the
Associated Press that the plane that crashed had been barred from
the South American country's airspace last year because its crews
had been allowing overloading of luggage on flights to Cuba.
Authorities on Saturday recovered a flight recorder from the
destroyed aircraft. Its charred debris was scattered across a field
near Santiago de las Vegas, a rural village some 12 miles south of
Havana's city center.
Investigators are likely to look initially into whether both
engines were operating as expected and whether movable panels on
the wings were deployed to help the plane climb during takeoff.
Mr. Yzquierdo, the transport minister, said the recovered
cockpit recording device was in good condition and that he hoped a
second flight recorder would also soon be recovered. The flight
recorders, known commonly as black boxes, keep flight data and
cockpit communications and can help investigators determine the
cause of accidents.
The cockpit-voice recorder is the least important of the
recorders on the plane, according to experts. The flight-data
recorder, which captures pilot commands and operation of onboard
systems including engines, is more likely to provide relevant
clues. Initial readouts of black boxes in good condition takes only
hours in the U.S., but could take longer elsewhere, or if they are
damaged.
The data are likely to show if both engines were working, how
fast the plane was flying and whether the sharp turn reported by
authorities shortly before the plane crashed was commanded.
Andy Pasztor contributed to this article.
Write to Santiago Pérez at santiago.perez@wsj.com and Anthony
Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 21, 2018 10:08 ET (14:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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