Cuba: Five years of the Mailén miracle

Five years later, May 18, 2018 it still hurts like the first one. "May all the deceased rest in peace, my heart today goes out to all their family and friends, a huge hug. Thank God for my life," Mailén Díaz Almaguer wrote a year ago, sole survivor of the tragedy, evoking that fateful Friday in Havana.

"Talking about something because you heard someone tell it is not the same as showing your scars," said Mailén, referring to a plane crash that occurred in China in 2022.

And this bitter five-year period for many Cubans and especially hard for the families of the national and foreign victims, could almost be reconstructed with reflections from the only survivor of the tragedy, who keep asking for justice.

"No obstacle is so big when your will to overcome is greater. Strive every day and fight for your dreams," declared the young woman, born in the northeastern province of Holguín - the destination of the crashed plane - and who was 19 years old on the day of the accident. misfortune.

He Boeing 737 accident, in May 2018, was the second with the most deaths in Cuba, only preceded by another from Cubana de Aviación, in 1989. Mailén Díaz Almaguer She is also the 25th sole survivor of plane crashes in the world, according to records between 1948 and 2019.

That terrible Friday

Mailén was one of the four passengers who could be rescued alive from the Mexican Boeing Global Air, leased by Cubana de Aviación.

At the General Calixto García University Hospital, in the Cuban capital, they died Grettel Landrove Font (23 years old) and Emiley Sánchez de la O (39) during the week following the accident. Mailén was the only one who survived the huge explosion and still no one explains how she was ejected from the mass of smoke and fire that the plane became, after impact with the ground in Rancho Boyeros.

Mailén Díaz Almaguer is - furthermore - the result of the professionalism and dedication of the Cuban medical personnel who fought to save her in three healthcare centers in Havana, a suffering in which her vitality and resilient health were also decisive.

Daughter of the miracle

Being the only survivor of a plane crash is a lifelong experience. Mailén, which already exceeds 24 years old that he turned last December 23, she won't stop wondering why she was the only one still alive.

After a difficult process of gradual recovery in the Havana hospitals Calixto García, Hermanos Ameijeiras, and the International Center for Neurological Restoration of Cuba (CIREN), Mailén became a miracle and voice for the voiceless victims.

"The most beautiful thing in life is knowing that you have been able to do everything. Self-love is one of the most important things," she stressed in her evocation of the tragedy that changed her life and left her a widow.

"I thank God very much for giving me a second chance to live and for getting better every day. I thank all the people who have cared... the doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, those people who have contributed in a way or another in my recovery and they have helped me with their prayers and good thoughts, especially my family. A big hug for everyone and may God bless you,” he wrote on Facebook.

Air accidents in Cuba

The Boeing 737, which crashed five years ago in Havana, was the second worst plane accident in Cuba, surpassed only by the accident of a Cubana de Aviación Il-62M, which on September 3, 1989, after taking off with heading to Milan (northern Italy) and Cologne (Germany), it crashed to the ground and caused the death of 171 people, including travelers and residents living in the vicinity of the José Martí international airport.

Another plane accident with fatalities occurred in November 2010, when an ATR-72 aircraft of the Cuban company Aerocaribbean crashed, falling in a rural area of the central province of Sancti Spíritus; with a death toll of 68, including 28 foreigners of 10 nationalities.

In April 2017, a Russian-made AN-26, belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), took off from the Playa Baracoa airport, northwest of Havana, and collided with the La Pimienta hill, in Candelaria, causing the death of eight soldiers, including the crew.

Other plane crash survivors

There are not many sole survivors of air tragedies in the world. The reviews include cases that were saved because they were in the bathroom at the time of the accident, others because they were ejected just in time – like Mailén –, and also by pure chance. These are some of the most shocking.

Indian Ocean, 2009. The Miracle Girl, Bahia BakariAfter the plane she was traveling in crashed, she clung to a piece of the fuselage and avoided drowning, resisting nine hours of anxiety, until she was rescued. 152 occupants of the plane died Air Yemenia, among whom was his mother.

Erika Delgado, another miracle girl who was 10 years old in 1995, when a DC-9, with 52 people on board, crashed in María La Baja, Colombia. Erika was the only survivor.

Cecelia Cichan She was 4 years old when the plane she was traveling on crashed west of Detroit, United States, in 1987. Of the 155 passengers on board, only she survived. After overcoming the trauma, she became a psychologist.

Juliane Koepcke, whose story has starred in two films. On December 24, 1971, the plane he was traveling on disintegrated in midair, with 93 passengers on board. Everyone dying, except her. Juliane, who was 17 years old at the time, was thrown next to her seat and fell into the leafy canopies of the Amazon trees, which cushioned the impact. When she woke up, after several hours unconscious, she was on the ground, sitting on her armchair and in the middle of the jungle. After nine days wandering through the jungle, she was found by some farmers.

They are all co-protagonists of the bloody imprint of misfortunes and symbols of miracles in the world, like that of the Cuban Mailén Díaz Almaguer, who was reborn in the tragedy of Havana, which on a day like today covered the entire Cuba in mourning.