A passenger plane crash in a mountainous area of Cuba has killed all 68 people aboard the turboprop airliner.
Cuba's Civil Aviation Authority confirmed there were no survivors among the 40 Cubans and 28 foreign nationals.
The flight originated in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and stopped in Santiago de Cuba. Bound for Havana, the AeroCaribbean plane was the last flight to leave the eastern Cuban city before Hurricane Tomas passed nearby.
Search and rescue crews pulled bodies from the wreckage of the twin turboprop plane, an ATR-72, in central Cuba's Sancti Spiritus province. Thick vegetation in the area near Guasimal village shrouded the crash site.
The pilot reported an emergency shortly before the plane went down late Thursday, and a witness told a local newspaper, Escambray, the aircraft made several abrupt movements before the fiery crash.
Cuban state media reported the 61 passengers included people from Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Venezuela and Japan. All seven crew members and 33 passengers were Cuban.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
