21 Bodies Found After Cuba Crash

Struggling against powerful currents, search teams probed deep waters off Cuba’s southeastern coast Sunday, hoping to recover more bodies from an airliner crash that probably killed all 44 people aboard.

Officials said 21 bodies had been found since Cubana de Aviacion Flight 787 plummeted to the sea late Friday, just minutes after takeoff from Santiago de Cuba.

Local authorities are convinced there are no survivors, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said.

“Some pieces of the plane’s structure have been found, pieces of carpeting and things like that,” airline spokesman Manolo Fernandez told The Associated Press by telephone from Havana.

“It’s in an area with very deep waters and a lot of currents,” he said.

Investigators plan to study the craft’s flight data recorder to determine what caused the Havana-bound flight to go down.

Thirty-nine passengers and a crew of five were on the Russian-made, twin-engine An-24 aircraft. The passenger list included eight non-Cubans - six Spaniards and two Brazilians.