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20 priests among 107 dead in Cuba plane crash, 3 survivors cling to life

Click to play video: 'Plane crashes in Cuba moments after taking off from Havana airport'
Plane crashes in Cuba moments after taking off from Havana airport
WATCH ABOVE: Plane crashes in Cuba moments after taking off from Havana airport – May 18, 2018

The Cuban Council of Churches says 20 priests from an evangelical church are among the dead in the Havana plane crash.

“On that plane were 10 couples of pastors. 20 people. All of the Nazarene Church in the eastern region,” confirmed Maite Quesada, a member of the council.

READ MORE: Over 100 dead after airplane crashes after take-off near Havana, Cuba

The group spent several days at a meeting in the capital and were returning to their homes and places of worship in the province of Holguin.

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The only three survivors of Cuba’s worst aviation disaster in three decades are clinging to life a day after their passenger jet carrying 110 people crashed in a fireball in Havana’s rural outskirts.

Carlos Alberto Martinez is director of the Calixto Garcia Hospital in the Cuban capital, where the three Cuban women are being treated. He says doctors are always hopeful that their patients will recover, but acknowledges that the women are in extremely grave condition.

Click to play video: 'Victims of Boeing 737 plane crash in Cuba rushed to emergency vehicles'
Victims of Boeing 737 plane crash in Cuba rushed to emergency vehicles

Martinez says the women “present severe injuries” and their state is “critical.”

Also Saturday, relatives of those who died gathered at a morgue in the capital, weeping and embracing each other.

Investigators are trying to piece together why the aging Boeing 737 went down and erupted in flames shortly after takeoff Friday.

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