68 die as Cuba airliner crashes in mountains

An early breakdown of the nationalities of the foreign passengers indicated there were no Britons on board.

AeroCaribbean Flight 883 went down near the village of Guasimal in Santi Spiritus province, carrying 61 passengers and a crew of seven. A list of passengers indicates the dead include nine Argentinians, seven Mexicans, three Dutch citizens, two Germans, two Austrians, a French citizen, an Italian, a Spaniard, a Venezuelan and a Japanese traveller.

The twice-a-week flight goes from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to Santiago de Cuba to Havana. State media said the plane was an ATR-72 twin turboprop and that the crash site was not far from the Zaza reservoir, the largest in Cuba. It said authorities had mobilised doctors and emergency workers in the rural area, which is about 220 miles east of Havana.

AeroCaribbean is owned by Cuban state airline Cubana de Aviacion.