Quito - The death toll in a Cuban passenger aircraft crash yesterday rose to 82, officials said. Three more bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the Tupolev 154, while another passenger died in hospital. Earlier, another victim was found under a collapsed wall of a house at the crash site. Rescue workers found the three bodies after a crane raised the end of the aircraft.
Officials earlier reported 77 deaths, including 68 from the plane and nine on the ground. The Cubana de Aviacion aircraft, a Russian-made Tupolev, ploughed through airport fences and into a children's soccer game in a nearby field after it aborted a third attempt to take off on Saturday. It caught fire and exploded.
Ten people were killed on the ground, including five children, and the remainder died in the airliner. The plane was carrying 90 people to the coastal town of Guayaquil after arriving from Havana on Saturday morning.
Also in Ecuador, a bus packed with people on their way to a party plunged over a cliff on Saturday, killing 34 people and injuring 18.
At least eight people died yesterday near Vilnius, Lithuania, when a Soviet-built helicopter crashed, it was reported last night.