One of the black boxes from Friday’s plane crash in Cuba was retrieved on Saturday, said local officials, revealing that it was in “good” condition.
Earlier, a pilot who flew the plane that crashed with 110 people on board claimed that the aircraft was poorly maintained. Three people survived the crash.
Mexican pilot Marco Aurelio Hernandez revealed that he had previously complained about alleged sub-standard practices by the aircraft's owner.
He told the Mexican newspaper Milenio that the Mexican aircraft leasing firm Global Air exercised poor plane maintenance, had a ban from flying in Chile and had flights fly at night in Venezuela without radar.
He said that during 2005 and 2013 he had flown all three Boeing planes owned by Global Air (also known as Damojh), including the 39-year-old one that went down on Friday after taking off from Havana's airport.
During his time at Global Air, he said, he had lodged a complaint for "lack of maintenance of the planes" despite the company having "very skilled" aircraft mechanics.
A Global Air spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that Hernandez had worked at the company but declined to comment on his allegations.
The Boeing 737-200 that crashed was built in 1979 and had passed a safety verification between in November last year.
It was rented to Cuban state airline Cubana de Aviacion by Global Air under a "wet lease," meaning the Mexican company provided the plane, the crew, maintenance and insurance.
The plane's two pilots, three flight attendants and maintenance technician on board were all Mexican.
Another former Global Air employee, Ana Marlene Covarrubias, who was a flight attendant at the company for seven years, told Mexican media that she had never observed any anomalies on the company's planes.
Cuba began two days of national mourning Saturday for the victims of the crash.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said an investigation was under way into Friday's crash.
Three women pulled alive from the mangled wreckage are the only known survivors.
The Boeing crashed shortly after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti airport, coming down in a field near the airport and sending a thick column of acrid smoke into the air.
The plane was on a domestic flight from Havana to the eastern city of Holguin. Most of the 104 passengers were Cuban, with five foreigners, including two Argentines, among them.
The plane was almost completely destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire. What appeared to be one of the wings of the plane was wedged among scorched tree trunks, but almost nothing remained of the main fuselage.
Cuban authorities have not said whether they have recovered the plane's black box flight recorders.
