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On March 28, 2017, a plane flying from Havana, Cuba, to Holguín, a city in eastern Cuba, crashed, and 112 people, including the entire crew, perished. There was one single survivor: a 19-year-old named Mailén Díaz Almaguer. Global Air, a Mexican company, had leased the Boeing 737-200 to Cubana de Aviación, the Cuban airline operating the plane during the crash; it was Global Air who was responsible for the plane’s maintenance and the training of the crew.
Circumstances of the Crash
On July 16, 2018, Global Air issued a public statement claiming the crash of Flight 972 was caused by pilot error and not by maintenance negligence. The company claimed the data from the black boxes showed “…the crew took off with the aircraft in a very pronounced angle of ascent, creating a lack of support that led to the fall of the aircraft.” But, even today, a joint investigation led by a Cuban commission with assistance from the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is not finished, and the commission claims any reports of what caused the crash are premature.
Lawsuit and Jurisdiction Issues
A lawsuit has been filed by Juana Cutiño Alfaro and Elba Buitrago Cabrera. Mr. Alfaro’s two adult children and Mr. Cabrera’s 40-year-old brother perished in the crash. The lawsuit was filed in Chicago, Illinois.
Why would a lawsuit be filed in the US, when the plane was owned by a Mexican company, leased by a Cuban airline, and the plane crash was in Cuba? The lawsuit also names The Boeing Company and AAR Corp. as parties. Boeing manufactured the plane, and AAR allegedly owned it before it was purchased by Global Air. Boeing is headquartered in Chicago and AAR is also headquartered in Illinois.
Very likely all defendants will file a motion to dismiss, asserting that the Cook County Circuit Court lacks jurisdiction over the case. The lawsuit claims that Global Air was negligent in its training of the pilots. This may even be supported by Global Air’s July statement that the crash was caused by pilot error.
It is possible that the judge in the case will side with the victims’ families and allow the lawsuit to move forward in Cook County District Court, however, and allow Boeing and AAR to remain parties. But, it is more likely the case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, and the victims will be forced to file their suit in a different jurisdiction.
These possibilities are all still up in the air, as the case was just recently filed. It will be interesting to see if and how the lawsuit moves forward. It was the worst crash in Cuba’s history, and the families are suffering a devastating loss. Those two facts are not in dispute. Once the investigation concludes, however, we will have a better of idea of what truly happened in the skies over Cuba that fateful day. And, hopefully, the families will get the justice they deserve, whether that’s in a United States court or a court in Mexico or Cuba.