Cuba Plane Crash Investigated

Aviation experts began Sunday sifting through the charred remains of a Cuban commercial airplane to look for clues about why it burst into flames during takeoff and crashed high in the Andes mountains, killing 78 people.

Red Cross workers dug through the charred wreckage for survivors, while firefighters sprayed jets of waters on the smoking ruins to prevent further explosions.

At least 22 passengers reportedly survived Saturday's crash.

"Before we heard the roar of the crash, we felt the plane rise a bit and burst in flames. There were three explosions," one of the survivors, Hernan Boada, 27, of Cuba told a local television station. "I saw other people wrapped in flames jump from the plane."

The Russian-made Tupolev 154 aircraft owned by Cubana de Aviacion burst into flames Saturday during takeoff and slammed into two homes, clipped the top of a auto mechanic's workshop and a soccer field located 200 yards beyond the end of the runway at Quito's International Airport.

Five children who were playing outside their homes or watching a soccer game near the soccer games were killed, relatives and witnesses said.

The jetliner barely missed a heavily traveled avenue at the end of the airport runway in a middle-class residential neighborhood 9,300 feet above sea level. It was en route first to Guayaquil, on the Ecuadorean coast, then to Havana.

The nose and front part of the plane disintegrated in the crash.

Cuba's official Prensa Latina news agency said Sunday that a team of experts from Cuba's civilian aeronautics agency had arrived in Quito to help in the investigation.

Alvaro Martinez of Chile, who survived the crash with minor injuries, said that even though the engine made a loud sound before takeoff, the pilot insisted on flying the plane.

"This is a case of professional negligence that should be condemned internationally. It is not possible that a pilot that knows his plane has problems attempts to take off," he said.

Gen. Osvaldo Dominguez, director of the Civil Aviation Office, said two out of three engines were in reverse, but would not comment further on the causes of the accident until the investigation has concluded.

The entire 14-person crew died in the crash. Two stewardesses helped passengers escape from the burning plane but were enveloped by the fire before they could escape, survivors told local newspapers.

Dominguez said nine of the 78 killed in the crash were people on the ground. Dominguez also said 19 foreigners died, including Cubans, Chileans, Italians, Spaniards, one Argentine and one Jamaican.

Written By Peter McFarren