Cubana de Aviación Flight 972

Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Mexican charter airline Global Air on behalf of Cubana de Aviación, from José Martí International Airport, Havana, Cuba, to Frank País Airport in Holguín, Cuba. On 18 May 2018, the 39-year-old Boeing 737-201 Adv. operating the route crashed shortly after takeoff, near Santiago de las Vegas, from Havana city centre. Of those on board, 112 died and one passenger survived with critical injuries. There were initially four survivors, but three of them later died at a local hospital. Most of the passengers on board were Cuban nationals, although the crew was entirely Mexican.

The incident was scrutinized by Cuban safety investigators, with assistance from the United States and Mexico. While the Federal Aviation Administration has no official jurisdiction in Cuba, their assistance was voluntary and welcomed by Cuban officials due to the local investigators' general lack of experience with American-built aircraft. Additional assistance was provided by Mexico, where the aircraft was registered, and also where the airline and flight crew that owned and operated the aircraft were based. The multinational investigation ultimately determined in September 2019 that the aircraft was outside centre of gravity, and the pilots were unsuccessful in an attempt to remedy issues related to the plane's loading/weight imbalance.

Aircraft

The aircraft was a leased Boeing 737-201 Adv. aircraft, operated by Mexican charter airline Global Air ( Aerolíneas Damojh, S.A. de C.V.), on a scheduled domestic flight from Havana to Holguín on behalf of Cubana de Aviación. The aircraft was manufactured in July 1979, and after being owned by a number of different airlines, it was acquired in July 2011 by Global Air, who began to operate the plane for Cubana de Aviación in 2018.

A statement by Global Air said that its aircraft had passed a November 2017 Mexican government inspection and that it was up-to-date with its permits to operate and lease aircraft.

Passengers and crew

The all-Mexican crew consisted of two pilots and four flight attendants, and there were 107 passengers on board. Mexico's Secretariat of Communications and Transportation released a statement identifying the crew members.

The captain was 53-year-old Jorge Nuñez Santos, who had logged 16,655 flight hours. The first officer was 40-year-old Miguel Arreola Ramírez, who had 2,314 flight hours.

Accident

Flight 972 was on a domestic flight to Frank País Airport in Holguín, eastern Cuba. It was carrying a total of 113 people107 passengers and six crew members. All but five of the passengers were Cuban nationals and all of the flight crew were Mexican.

The aircraft crashed close to the airport at 12:08 pm, shortly after taking off. Eyewitnesses said that the plane made an unusual turn after leaving the runway; one witness on the ground said that she saw one of the plane's engines on fire. The plane crashed into train tracks and a farm, and a fire erupted from the wreckage. No one on the ground was injured. First responders, including firefighters and emergency medical crews, rushed to the scene to assist with the rescue efforts.

Security camera footage of the accident was released on 25 May, showing the final moments of the aircraft before the crash, from a nearby location.

Victims

All but four of the 113 people on board perished in the crash; however, three of the four survivors later died in hospital. One passenger who initially survived the crash died three days later, on 21 May, and another died on 25 May. In total, 112 people, including all crew members, were killed in the accident. A Cuban national, remained as the only survivor of the crash. She suffered from severe burns, fragmentation of memory, a cervical spinal injury that left her paraplegic, amputation of her left lower leg, among other injuries and complications that required prolonged hospitalization. She was released from the hospital for the first time in March 2019.

The president of Cuba's Church of the Nazarene confirmed that ten pastors from the church, and their spouses, were among the passengers that were killed in the crash. Flight 972 is the second deadliest aircraft accident in Cuba, surpassed only by the crash of Cubana de Aviación Flight 9046 in 1989, which killed 150 people. The previous major commercial aircraft accident in Cuba was Aero Caribbean Flight 883 in 2010.

Investigation

President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced that a special commission had been formed to find the cause of the crash. Both the United States' National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration have stated they would be able to offer assistance in the investigation, if requested. The aircraft manufacturer Boeing said it was ready to send a technical team to Cuba "as permitted under US law and at the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board and Cuban authorities".

Transport Minister Adel Yzquierdo reported the recovery of the flight data recorder from the crash site on 19 May. The cockpit voice recorder was located on 24 May. Both were sent to the National Transportation Safety Board for analysis.

On 19 May, the Mexican government announced that its National Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) was to begin an operational audit of Global Air to see if the airline was in compliance with regulations, and subsequently, on 21 May, the Mexican authorities temporarily suspended Global Air's operations.

In the days following the crash, allegations were made by former workers and Cubana employees relating to Global Air's airworthiness, maintenance and safety record. Incidents involving the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority

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