One of two black boxes recovered after plane crash

HAVANA (AP):

Two days of national mourning started in Cuba yesterday as the country reacted to the plane crash that is believed to have left more than 100 people dead.

Cuban officials yesterday reported that they found one of the two black boxes from the plane in "good condition", and Transport Minister Adel Yzquierdo said he hopes the second device will be recovered soon.

The Boeing 737, which was nearly 40 years old, was carrying 105 passengers and six crew members.

Three women were pulled alive from the wreckage near Havana's airport. They remained in grave condition yesterday as investigators tried to determine why the ageing Boeing 737 went down and erupted in flames shortly after take-off in Havana.

It was Cuba's worst aviation disaster in three decades and its third major air accident since 2010.

Skies were overcast and rainy at the airport at the time of last Friday's disaster, and Cuban state television said the 39-year-old jet veered sharply to the right after departing on a domestic flight to the eastern city of HolguÌn.

"The only thing we heard, when we were checking in, an explosion, the lights went out in the airport and we looked out and saw black smoke rising and they told us a plane had crashed," Argentine tourist Brian Horanbuena told The Associated Press at the airport.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said a special commission had been formed to find the cause of the crash. The plane had 104 mainly Cuban passengers and six crew members.

State airline Cubana, which operated the flight, has a generally good safety record but it is notorious for delays and cancellations and has taken many of its planes out of service because of maintenance problems in recent months.

Mexican officials said the Boeing 737-201 was built in 1979 and rented by Cubana from Aerolineas Damojh, a small charter company that also goes by the name Global Air.

Aviation authorities in Guyana last year stopped the same aircraft from conducting charter flights because of serious safety concerns, including fears about excessive baggage overloading and other issues.