Cuba plane crash death toll rises to 111, Mexico suspends lease company

The death toll in one of Cuba’s worst air disasters rose to 111 on Monday while Mexico suspended the operations of the Mexican company that had leased the 39-year old Boeing 737 to Cuba’s flagship airline. Grettel Landrove, a 23-year old Cuban student died in a Havana hospital from “severe traumatic lesions”, Cuban state-run media reported. Two Cuban women remained in critical condition due to burns and other trauma, with a high risk of complications, media reports said. The airliner crashed shortly after takeoff on a domestic flight from Havana to the eastern city of Holguin on Friday in one of Cuba’s worst air disasters. The plane was a Boeing 737 built in 1979 and leased to Cuba’s flagship carrier Cubana by a little-known Mexican company Damojh. Mexico’s civil aviation authority said on Monday it had temporarily suspended Damojh’s operations while it made sure the firm adhered to regulations and gathered information to help investigators find the cause of the crash. Damojh, which owned three 737s before the accident, has been suspended twice before during regulatory compliance reviews, the authority said.<br/>