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737 Crashes in Cuba


Jaydee

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Cuban media say a Boeing 737 operated by state airline Cubana has crashed on takeoff from Jose Marti International Airport in Havana with 104 passengers on board. There was no immediate word on casualties.

State television and websites said the plane was headed to the eastern city of Holguin and crashed between the airport in southern Havana and the nearby town of Santiago de las Vegas.

The plane was rented by Cubana, which has taken many of its aging planes out of service in recent months due to mechanical problems.

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-cuba-says-a-boeing-737-has-crashed-after-taking-off-from-havana/

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Mexican charter carrier confirms 737 involved in Cuba crash

  • 18 May, 2018
  • SOURCE: Flight Dashboard
  • BY: Ghim-Lay Yeo
  • Washington DC

The Boeing 737-200 involved in a crash at Havana airport earlier today is owned by Mexican charter carrier Global Air, also known as Damojh Airlines.

A representative at Global Air, based in Mexico City, confirms to FlightGlobal that the charter carrier's aircraft crashed in Havana.

The aircraft, registered XA-UHZ, is almost 39 years old and was delivered in 1979 to its first operator, Piedmont Airlines.

Cubana had leased the aircraft for the flight from Havana to Holguin today, says Cuban state-owned newspaper Granma. The 737 crashed at 12:08 in Santiago de Las Vegas, about 10km (6.2 miles) from Havana airport, shortly after take off.

Granma

Granma reports that three survivors among the 105 passengers and crew members on board have been sent to local hospitals and are in critical condition. There was one infant and four children among the passengers on board, says the newspaper.

It is not immediately clear for how long Cubana had leased the 737. Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that it had leased the same aircraft for about eight months in 2009. Cubana was not immediately contactable for comment.

The Cuban airline has been wet-leasing aircraft to operate its flights after it grounded its fleet of Antonov An-158s earlier this year, following a struggle to obtain spare parts for the fleet, which in turn impacted operational reliability. Cuba's civil aviation authority formally ordered the grounding of the aircraft type recently.

Damojh had a fleet of three aircraft including the 737-200 involved in today's accident, says Mexico's transportation ministry.

The charter carrier, which began service in 1990, had undergone routine inspections in November 2017 and had cleared those checks, says the ministry.

It also had the required permits and approvals for the wet-lease operations with Cubana, it adds.

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Boeing 737 aircraft use engines made by CFM International, the supplier of the world’s most-used engines, built by a joint venture of GE and France’s Safran.

From the above link....somebody didn’t do their homework!

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I assume the NTSB won’t be allowed to participate in the investigation, but what about Boeing? Cuba doesn’t have much of an investigation body, they’re going to need support. 

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31 minutes ago, J.O. said:

I assume the NTSB won’t be allowed to participate in the investigation, but what about Boeing? Cuba doesn’t have much of an investigation body, they’re going to need support. 

They may even turn to Canada to help out.

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Maybe coincidental but watched a Mayday episode the other night. It involved a Delta 727 that crashed just after liftoff  in 1988. The crew neglected to set t/o flaps and the t/o warning was suspected to be intermittent due to corrosion of a mechanical switch. 

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Shortly after WestJet started, they coaxed a lightly loaded 737-200 off of 16 in YYC with 0 flaps....in winter.

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Much is said about the age of the aircraft and then.  Mr. Farinas said that Cuban officials even decided in the past against working with the Mexican company, Damojh Aerolíneas, also known as Global Air, after the flight crew that came with the lease got lost in the air on one trip. But they eventually reversed the decision, he said, “probably out of desperation

Hand-Me-Down Plane That Crashed Reflects a Cuban Air Industry in Crisis

Rescuers searching through the wreckage of a Boeing 737 that crashed with more than 100 passengers on board near Havana on Friday.CreditRamon Espinosa/Associated Press

May 19, 2018

MEXICO CITY — Almost 40 years old by the time it crashed on Friday just outside of Havana, killing more than 100 people, the aging Boeing 737 had changed ownership nearly a half-dozen times, passing from operators in the United States to Canada, from Cameroon to the Caribbean.

“I actually flew that exact plane,” said John Cox, the head of the consultancy Safety Operating Systems, who traced the aircraft’s ownership back to 1979, when it was new and belonged to Piedmont Airlines, his former employer.

Though the cause of the crash has not been determined, the plane itself is a powerful symbol of Cuba’s troubled aviation industry. As tourism to the island surges, Cuba’s national airline finds itself struggling to acquire enough planes to meet the demand and maintain its decrepit fleet.

Cuba’s economy has long been in shambles, and experts say the troubles plaguing its aviation sector stem from the same obstacles that have bedeviled the country for decades: economic mismanagement and the United States embargo of the island.

 

Cuba’s problems have gotten so bad that, a few weeks ago, the country grounded most of its domestic flights because of safety concerns over its fleet. To continue flying, officials have been forced to lease planes from foreign outfits that sometimes use decades-old planes, like the one that crashed and burned right after takeoff on Friday, killing nearly everyone on board.

The old Boeing 737 had been leased to Cubana de Aviación, the state airline, by a relatively unknown Mexican company with just three aircraft in its fleet. Some aviation industry analysts were taken aback at the plane’s advanced age.

 

“That’s one of the oldest passenger jets I have heard of that is still in service,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of the Teal Group, an aviation and aerospace consulting company in Fairfax, Va.

Though Mexican officials said the plane had passed safety inspections as recently as November, it is one of just 100 of its model still in circulation across the globe, reflecting the limited options the Cuban government has in order to continue operating its state airline.

“Whether the airline is going to survive is an open question,” said George Farinas, a retired Delta pilot who works as a civil aviation inspector and is writing a book about the history of Cubana de Aviación. “They are in a major crisis right now

 

Mr. Farinas said that Cuban officials even decided in the past against working with the Mexican company, Damojh Aerolíneas, also known as Global Air, after the flight crew that came with the lease got lost in the air on one trip. But they eventually reversed the decision, he said, “probably out of desperation.”

Analysts sometimes disagree about which is more to blame for Cuba’s troubled aviation industry: the American embargo of the island or the country’s own history of economic mismanagement.

Some experts say the sanctions have crippled the nation’s ability to gain access to the vendors and financing needed to get new aircraft. The Cubans themselves have made the case numerous times, blaming the decades-old sanctions for their aging planes, which include Russian-made aircraft that are difficult to find parts for.

“If it were not for the embargo, they would be able to access a robust capital market for financing Western aircraft,” said Samuel Engel, the senior vice president at ICF Consulting and an expert in the international airline industry.

But many analysts say that, while a process is involved, Cuba can indeed get access to such markets, as well as planes.

“The embargo does play a role in inhibiting business with Cuba, but there are policies to promote the sale of aircraft,” said Dallas Woodrum, an associate at Akin Gump in the firm’s Washington office. “Whether businesses decide to take advantage of that is a different question, and a matter of their risk tolerance and what type of reward they see.”

In Havana, watching local news reports about the plane crash.CreditAlexandre Meneghini/Reuters

Cuba also suffers from a cash flow problem that further hinders the purchase of international goods — a product of the sanctions but also, critics say, its poor stewardship of the economy.

“The challenge is that they don’t manage the industry well,” said Emilio Morales, president of the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group, which focuses on the Cuban economy. “The business requires capital; it requires financing to maintain the planes.”

Founded in 1929, Cubana de Aviación was once the pride of the Caribbean, replete with modern planes and top-flight maintenance. But as with so many elements of Cuba’s infrastructure and transportation, that progress began to slowly, and then suddenly halt, following the revolution, economic sanctions and, later, the fall of the Soviet Union, which had helped keep the nation afloat financially.

Cars hailing from the 1960s roll down pockmarked streets, past unpainted buildings and under worn bridges. And while the government has maintained its commitment to social services, whether free health care or education, money has grown scarce.

That reality has set in for the airline industry, leaving the state airline with limited options to upgrade old planes or get new ones.

Cubana has struggled with a spotty safety record in the past — including several crashes in the late 1990s that left scores dead. The tragedies include crashes in Ecuador, Guatemala, Venezuela and off the island’s southeast coast.

Friday’s crash occurred just after noon, following the plane’s departure from Havana for the eastern city of Holguín. Emergency workers and nearby residents raced to the scene, where the battered remnants of the plane kicked up plumes of thick smoke, trying to rescue survivors.

Ramiro Santana Martínez, 46, a construction worker who lives about 50 yards from the crash site, said he was near his house when he heard an explosion, quickly followed by a second one.

He joined neighbors and strangers who converged on the smoldering husk of the plane, looking for survivors. Mr. Santana said charred bodies, some dismembered, were scattered across the site; some had been thrown clear of the wreckage.

A volunteer rescuer spotted movement under some fallen branches: a woman’s hand. Mr. Santana and others rushed to help pull the crying woman out and get her to an ambulance. She was burned and bloodied but conscious.

Mr. Santana said he also helped pull out two other people, both men, who were breathing at the time but inert. Cuban officials said three women ended up surviving the crash, though they were in listed in “extreme critical” condition on Saturday.

Among the victims, the Cuban Council of Churches said, was a group of 18 people who had traveled to a seminary in Havana.

Those on board the plane included five crew members, all Mexican. As part of its contract, Cubana hired them to operate the aircraft, an agreement known as a wet lease. There was no specific mention of their condition as of Saturday afternoon, but the three survivors identified by the Cuban government did not include the crew members.

Leticia Nuñez, the sister of the flight’s captain, Jorge Luis Nuñez Santos, said that her family had only heard the information reported in the media, and had not received any further details from Mexican authorities. Ms. Nuñez said she assumed the worst, but was still waiting for official confirmation.

“Sometimes crew members change, someone gets in late — we don’t lose hope, we can’t,” she said in an interview over Facebook.

 

Earlier on Friday, Ms. Nuñez posted a farewell message on the Facebook page of an organization where she works: “To my brother, Captain Jorge Luis Núñez Santos, hero in Havana, Cuba. See you soon. I love you.”

Abigail Hernández, another Mexican crew member, posted a picture on her Facebook page last February in which she is seen standing and smiling in front of a red telephone box, with the comment: “Happy to get to know the world.”

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From what I recall, the aural warning horn control CB had popped; no take-off misconfig warning sounded.

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17 hours ago, J.O. said:

I assume the NTSB won’t be allowed to participate in the investigation, but what about Boeing? Cuba doesn’t have much of an investigation body, they’re going to need support. 

Since Cuba is an ICAO member the Chicago Convention applies so the NTSB will very likely participate although possibly through an accredited representative.

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On 5/20/2018 at 2:58 AM, Super 80 said:

Since Cuba is an ICAO member the Chicago Convention applies so the NTSB will very likely participate although possibly through an accredited representative.

Boeing is representing the United States in the investigation.

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If an accident or serious incident occurs in a foreign state involving a civil aircraft of U.S. Registry, a U.S. operator, or an aircraft of U.S. design or U.S. manufacture, where the foreign state is a signator to the ICAO Convention, that state is responsible for the investigation. In accord with the ICAO Annex 13 SARPS, upon receipt of a formal notification of the accident or serious incident that may involve significant issues, the NTSB may designate a U.S. Accredited Representative and appoint advisors to carry out the Obligations, receive the Entitlements, provide Consultation, and receive Safety Recommendations from the state of occurrence.

Boeing has done this on behalf of the NTSB a number of times. I believe the American participation in the Turkish 747 crash in Kyrgyzstan was entirely staffed by Boeing.

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There aircraft manufacturer is almost always involved in the investigation and the Safety board of the country of manufacture may also be invited to assist.

 

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