Mexican Regulator Suspends Crash Airline’s Operations

Aerolíneas Damojh, the Mexican airline that operated the aircraft which crashed near Havana last week has been suspended from flying while the country’s aviation regulator investigates the carrier.

Mexico’s General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said it will carry out a “major extraordinary verification” of the charter airline after one of its aircraft, a Boeing 737, crashed just after takeoff from Havana, killing 111 people.

The 39 year old aircraft was on a domestic flight to Holguin in eastern Cuba when it came down a few kilometres south of the capital. Three passengers survived the crash but one has since died in hospital. The two remaining survivors are reported to be in a critical condition.

The Mexican regulator said Aerolíneas Damojh, also known as Global Air, had been subject to annual checks, with the most recent in November 2017. The airline’s aircraft had their airworthiness certificates renewed every two years, with the last granted in August and October of 2017.

The small charter airline, which was operating the service on behalf of state airline Cubana de Aviación, has been the subject of two “extraordinary verification visits”, one in 2010, the second in 2013.

The airline’s operations were temporarily suspended in November 2010 after an incident where one of its aircraft suffered a failure of its nose landing gear. The suspension lasted about five weeks.

The second suspension was in November 2013, after one of its captains filed a complaint against the airline. The suspension lasted just over two months until Damojh was able to meet the regulator’s verification requirements.

The current suspension will allow the regulator to collect information relevant to the Cuba accident investigation, and to verify that the airline’s current operating conditions comply with its regulations, it said.