Camagüey – Santiago de Cuba

On October 24, 1990 at 01:58 AM, Camagüey – Santiago de Cuba experienced a crash involving Yakovlev Yak-40, operated by Cubana de Aviación, with the event recorded near Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

31 people were known to be on board, 11 fatalities were recorded, 20 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 35.5%.

Crew on board: 7, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 24, passenger fatalities: 9, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The descent to Santiago de Cuba-Antonio Maceo Airport was started by night and poor weather conditions. As the crew was unable to locate the airport, he decided to abandon the approach and initiated a go-around. Few minutes later, a second attempt to land was also abandoned. During the third approach completed under VFR mode, the crew failed to realize he was not properly aligned when the aircraft struck at a speed of 280 km/h the top of a hill and crashed 4 km short of runway 27. Two crew members and 9 passengers were killed while 20 other occupants were rescued, among them 12 were seriously injured.

Aircraft reference details include registration CU-T1202, MSN 9 63 14 49, year of manufacture 1976.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 20.0214°, -75.8295°.