
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.

At least 100 are dead after the internal Cubana de Aviacion flight, which was carrying 113 passengers and crew, including five children, crashed into a yuca field near a high school, in the Santiago de las Vegas neighborhood, on Friday.

Just four survivors were recovered and taken to hospital in critical condition, according to Cuban media. One has since died in hospital.

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.

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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 (pictured is the wreckage)

Fire crews and emergency services were on the scene to put out the fire still smoldering in the ashes of the plane

A man stands in the airport terminal, watching the plume of thick black smoke rising from the crash

Flight DMJ 0972 had taken off from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, headed for the city of Holguin, in eastern Cuba, when it crashed in the Santiago de las Vegas neighborhood

#BREAKING: Cuban TV have transmitted the video from the scene of the plane crash in Havana. pic.twitter.com/96Hz3Phj3h — BreakingNNow (@BreakingNNow) May 18, 2018

A shocking video of the aftermath shows a victim being stretchered away from the scene while a large crowd of volunteers and emergency responders attended the scene.

Hospitals in the capital, including the General Calixto García University Hospital, are bracing themselves for the arrival of the survivors, Cuban state media Granma reports.

Flight DMJ 0972, which was headed for the city of Holguin, in eastern Cuba, was carrying 104 passengers and nine crew when it crashed at 12.08pm local time.

Wreckage was strewn over the area, 12 miles, south of Havana, and blackened parts of the fuselage were visible.

'We heard an explosion and then saw a big cloud of smoke go up,' Gilberto Menendez, who runs a restaurant near the crash site in the agricultural area of Boyeros, told Reuters.

Carlos Alberto Martinez, the director of Havana's Calixto Garcia hospital, told Reuters that four victims of the accident had been brought there. One had died and three others, all women, were in a serious condition, he said.

'She is alive but very burnt and swollen,' said a distressed relative of one of the survivors at the hospital.

The flight was leased by airline Cubana from a small Mexican airline called Damojh or Global, Cuban state media said. Holguin has some of the island's most pristine beaches, and attracts tourists.

Cubana declined to comment. A Damojh representative in Mexico said, 'we are gathering what we can to give correct information.'

The nationality of those on board was not immediately clear although the crew were Mexican.

El vuelo DMJ 0972, con 105 personas a bordo entre pasajeros y la tripulación, se dirigía a la ciudad de Holguín. Cuba.#Noticias https://t.co/pNsiJq1GRF pic.twitter.com/SKVVQWEPxI — Canal 6 Honduras (@Canal6Honduras) May 18, 2018

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (center) arrives at the site of the accident

The newly sworn in president (L) spoke with emergency crews and volunteers at the scene of the tragedy

A team of emergency personnel, in multiple ambulances, arrived at the scene. Local media reports that just three survivors have been found so far

Ambulances and fire trucks line the nearby street near the to crash zone after the Boeing 737 went down at around midday local time

The cause of the crash is not clear.

Witnesses at the airport terminal reported seeing a huge fireball followed by a giant plume of smoke rising in the distance.

Cuba's newly sworn in president Miguel Diaz-Canel arrived at the scene shortly after the crash.

'The news is not very promising, it seems that there is a high number of victims,' he told AFP.

Cuba's national airline, Cubana de Aviacion, has been plagued with safety issues in recent years due to its aging fleet - and only yesterday, more than a third of its fleet were officially grounded.

The company - which has a fleet of 16 with an average age of almost ten years old - received an order from the Cuban National Aviation Authority to ground its six An-158 aircraft due to 'serious' technical and safety issues including cracks and mechanical issues, according to Airline Geeks.

Rescue and search workers on the site where the airliner with more than 100 passengers plummeted into a yuca field just after takeoff from the international airport in Havana, Cuba

Dozens of rescue and search workers on the site where the Cuban airliner with 104 passengers plummeted into a yuca field

A thick plume of smoke, rising from the wreckage (pictured) could be seen from the nearby airport terminal

Emergency personnel worked at the site of the accident after the Boeing 737 operated by Cubana de Aviacion crashed 'near the international airport'

Most of the Ukranian-built aircraft had already been grounded as the airline struggled to get new parts.

Today's crash reportedly involved Cubana's Boeing 737, leased from the Mexican company Damojh, Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said. It's crew were also Mexican.

Boeing Airplanes tweeted: 'We are aware of news reports out of Cuba and are closely monitoring the situation.'

Cubana added two turboprop ATR 72-500s, provided by South African Solenta Aviation, in 2017.

The last fatal crash in Cuba was in 2017, the Aviation Safety Network said. It was a military flight that killed all eight personnel aboard. In 2010, a commercial Aero Caribbean plane crashed in central Cuba. All 68 people on board were killed.

The latest available information on Cuba from U.N. safety aviation agency ICAO, dating back to 2008, ranks it above the global average – though that preceded the latest three crashes.

Plane crash in Cuba, American flight crashed shortly after take off �� #cuba #planecrash pic.twitter.com/W4IuiIaF1K — Matt Blakeley (@blakeley1990) May 18, 2018