HAVANA, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The sole survivor of a fatal plane crash in Cuba that killed all of the other 112 people on board in mid-May remains in critical condition, the hospital said on Tuesday.
Cuban national Maylen Diaz Almaguer, 19, is conscious, oriented and cooperating with the treatment, Dr. Carlos Alberto Martinez, director of the Calixto Garcia General Hospital in Havana, told reporters.
The patient's respiratory functions have been stabilized so that she can occasionally breath on her own without the aid of mechanical ventilation, he said, but her prognosis is guarded, meaning doctors cannot say how her condition will evolve.
In the meantime, Cuban authorities continue to investigate the cause of the crash with the help of U.S. and Mexican forensic experts.
Cubana Airlines operated the aircraft under a wet lease arrangement with Mexican charter airline Damojh (commercially known as Global Air), meaning it came with a flight and maintenance crew, which in this case numbered six people.
The Boeing 737 crashed and ignited a little past noon on May 18, just minutes after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport on its way to eastern Holguin province.
Nearly all the victims, mainly Cuban nationals, were killed on impact and in the resulting fire.
Two other women rescued alive along with Diaz later succumbed to their injuries.
