‘Wet leased’ Boeing jet in worst Cuba plane crash since 1989 had safety complaints

The aircraft was ‘wet leased’ to Cuba’s state airline by a Mexican company that also supplied crew, flight attendants, a maintenance technician, as well as the insurance

Reading Time:3 minutes

Police and military personnel at the scene of the crash. Photo: EPA

Published: 12:09pm, 20 May 2018Updated: 10:29pm, 20 May 2018

The Mexican charter company whose plane crashed in Havana, killing 110 people, has been the subject of two serious complaints about its crews’ performance over the last decade, according to authorities in Guyana and a retired pilot for Cuba’s national airline.

The plane was barred from Guyanese airspace last year after authorities discovered that its crew had been allowing dangerous overloading of luggage on flights to Cuba, Guyanese Civil Aviation Director Captain Egbert Field said.

The plane and crew were being rented from Mexico City-based Damojh airlines by EasySky, a Honduras-based low-cost airline.

Cuba’s national carrier, Cubana de Aviacion, was also renting the Boeing 737 and crew in a similar arrangement known as a “wet lease” before the aircraft veered on takeoff to the eastern Cuban city of Holguin and crashed into a field just after noon Friday, according to Mexican aviation authorities.

A Damojh employee in Mexico City declined to comment, saying the company would be communicating only through written statements.

Mexican authorities said Damojh had permits needed to lease its aircraft and had passed a November 2017 verification of its maintenance programme.