Cuban airline carrying 104 passengers explodes moments after taking off

A Boeing 737 plane has crashed moments after taking off from Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport – just one day after more than a third of its fleet were grounded over safety concerns.

Cuba’s newly sworn in president Miguel Diaz-Canel said there was a ‘high number of casualties’ after the internal Cubana de Aviacion flight, went down on near a high school campus, between Boyeyos and central Havana, on Friday.

Photos of the scene show fire crews attempting to put out the still smoking wreckage of the aircraft which was devastated in the crash. Debris was left scattered across the surrounding area after the explosion.

The plane, which was headed for the city of Holguin, in eastern Cuba, was carrying 104 passengers when it crashed. High number of casualties is being reported although numbers are not yet known.