The flight from hell on Cubana (Other airlines...)

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Product:	Other airlines...
Date:	07/07/00 (460 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I now know that my wife really loves me

Disadvantages: poor safety record

Cuba may well be one of the jewels in the Caribbean, but travelling within its boundaries on an internal flight has to be experienced to be believed.
All of the internal flights within Cuba are carried out by the government run national airline Cubana, who have an unbelievably poor reputation for safety (principally due to the US embargo).
The last time I visited Cuba was in the summer of 97; we travelled to Havana from Gatwick on a non-eventful boring flight of 10 hours (DC10).
Our first night in Cuba was spent in Havana a city of great contrasts, (which will be the subject of another opinion) the second day was spent travelling to our coastal destination at Santa Lucia, this involved flying from Havana (Jose Marti’ international) to Camaquey.
The plane that we were to fly on was an old twin prop, which looked as though it was powered by elastic bands. That was just the external appearance, once inside this flying museum my heart sank. The site of a toilet that was probably last cleaned when the plane was built immediately greeted us. The smell was gut wrenching.
The flight attendant was courteous enough and showed us to our seats near the front of the plane, the seat I was travelling in was broke and could not be set in an upright condition.
All the internal plastic trim within the plane showed the effects of UV degradation with fine cracks everywhere.
The plane eventually took off and reached a cruising altitude of approximately 12000 feet, at this point in the flight the air conditioning system suddenly kicked in and appeared to fill the cabin with smoke. My wife, who is a seasoned flier, flipped when she saw the “smoke”, she genuinely thought that we were going to die and let everyone in the cabin aware of this thought. She did tell me that she loved me and that she was sorry for being such a bitch toward me.
The attendant tried to reassure her, and explained that the “smoke” was just cold air com
ing from the air con unit.
The flight was uneventful from here except for the landing, which was just a bit too bouncy for me.
Would I go to Cuba again? Definitely, but I will never again take an internal flight.

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