Death toll arising from Cuba air crash rises to 112

The death toll arising from the recent deadly plane crash in Cuba has risen to 112 following the demise of one the survivors of the tragic incident which happened just outside Havana airport last week.

According to the state-run media citing the Cuban government, the victim died early on Friday, raising the death toll from one of Cuba’s worst air disasters to have happened in recent times.

The victim identified as Emiley Sanchez, a 40-year old Cuban from the eastern city of Holguin where the Boeing 737 had been heading to before it crashed, died in a hospital in the capital due to “severe traumatic lesions and burns” suffered in the accident.

Read also: Black box of crashed Cuban plane found as 110 passengers confirmed dead

“Her state was extremely critical with a unfavourable prognostic and on a progressive downwards path that we could not reverse,” the Health Ministry said in a statement read on state-run radio station Radio Reloj.

Three Cuban women had originally survived when the Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff and burst into flames. Two of them have now died, leaving one survivor fighting for her life.

According to Cuba’s Transport Minister Adel Yzquierdo, the Boeing 737-201 which was on a domestic flight to the eastern city of Holguin, when it crashed shortly after taking off from Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport.

The country’s transport minister added that the those on board the plane which was operated by state airline Cubana de Aviacion, included 102 Cubans, three tourists, two foreign residents and six crew members, who were from Mexico.

Reports say the air disaster was Cuba’s third major air accident since 2010 and its worst since 1989, when 150 people were killed after a passenger plane crashed near the capital.

 

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