Plane crashes in Havana, Cuba, with at least 110 people on board

[Guest Nicole]

HAVANA -- A Cuban-operated airliner with at least 110 people on board crashed into a cassava field just after takeoff from Havana's international airport on Friday. There appeared to be mass casualties as Cuban officials said three people had survived, but had yet to give an official toll.

Authorities said there were 104 passengers and nine foreign crew members on the flight that was headed to the eastern city of Holguin. Witnesses said they saw a thick column of smoke near the airport.

Witnesses said they saw a thick column of smoke near the airport.

"A column of black smoke rose up in the sky," resident Ana Gonzalez told the Reuters news agency.

The screams of high school kids could be heard inside a nearby school as they ran to safety, CBS News' Manuel Bojorquez reports.   

The plane lay in a field of yuca-root plants and appeared heavily damaged and burnt. Firefighters were trying to extinguish its smoldering remains. Government officials including President Miguel Diaz-Canel rushed to the site, along with a large number of emergency medical workers. Residents of the rural area said they had seen some survivors being taken away in ambulances.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plane-crash-havana-cuba-today-2018-05-18/

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Those Flotation Cushions/Life Preservers they have under the seat will not bounce you out of a farmer's field.