A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft with humanitarian cargo took off from the Moscow Region to hurricane-hit Cuba, the ministry said on Thursday.
“The Emergencies Ministry’s Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft with 32 metric tons of humanitarian cargo took off from the Ramenskoye airport at 23:45 Moscow time on Wednesday [19:45 GMT] to the Santiago de Cuba airport in Cuba, which was hit by hurricane Sandy,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Cuban national headquarters on the civil defense earlier said that at least ten people were killed by Sandy hurricane in the Santiago de Cuba province. The storm also destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of cane and banana plantations and partly or completely ruined over 60,000 houses.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry reported that it intended to send a total of three aircraft with rescuers and humanitarian aid to Cuba.