"There were no survivors in the plane," www.cubadebate.cu said. "Its 68 passengers, including seven crew members, died when the aircraft crashed". The website published a list of the 40 Cubans and 28 foreigners from 10 countries who were on board. 

It posted a photograph showing flames rising from the shattered remains of the plane -- an ATR-72-212 twin turboprop built by ATR, a joint venture of Europe's EADS and Italian group Finmeccanica. 

According to the website, the plane that crashed was one of the youngest in its fleet, at 15 years old. 

Witnesses said the plane made "several brusque movements before falling to the ground", near the town of Guasimal in Sancti Spiritus province, the newspaper Escambray reported in its online edition. 

The plane, Flight 883, left Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba en route to Havana and went down at 5:42 PM local time (6:42 PM ET). After making an emergency call, the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers. 

Medical facilities in the area, about 210 miles southeast of Havana, were put on alert to prepare for emergency patients. But by midnight they were told to stand down because no survivors were expected. 

The air accident was Cuba's worst since September 3, 1989, when a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62M plane crashed after taking off from Havana airport en route to Italy, killing all 126 people on board.