REMEMBERING THE CUBANA AIR DISASTER.

Oct 11, 2016 Editorial

Wednesday October 6, 1976 will always be remembered by Guyanese as one of the most fateful and tragic days for eleven young men and women who perished when two bombs exploded on a Cubana airline flight number CU455.
Forty years ago on October 6, 1976, a Cuban DC 8 passenger aircraft flight number CU-455 left Guyana for Trinidad, then on to Seawell International Airport in Barbados which was renamed the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport that same year. From Barbados, the plane was scheduled to fly to Jamaica and then to its final destination in Havana, Cuba. It did not make it. The tragedy that struck flight number CU455 remains etched in the minds of most Guyanese.
Minutes after the plane took-off from Barbados, a bomb located in the aircraft’s rear lavatories exploded. Captain Wilfredo Perez radioed the control tower in Barbados of an emergency and requested immediate landing. As smoke covered the rear of the plane, the pilot tried to maneuver it towards Seawell International airport, but it quickly went into a tail spin and descended rapidly as another bomb exploded.
Realising that a successful landing was not possible, the Captain courageously steered the aircraft away from the Paradise beach and towards the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Barbados where the plane crashed thus saving the lives of many tourists. It was the worst aircraft crash in the region. All 73 passengers and crew on board perished. Among them were 57 Cubans, five Koreans and 11 Guyanese of whom six were students going to Cuba to study medicine and engineering.
Among the Cubans who died were all 24 members of the 1975 Cuban national fencing team, including many teenagers who had just won gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championship games as well as several Cuban sport officials. The young athletes proudly wore their gold medals on board the aircraft.
The crash sent shockwaves throughout the Caribbean. Many wept openly in the streets. The bombing was condemned by the leaders of the Caribbean. Guyana and Cuba went further and blamed the disaster on the imperial forces in the United States.
It was the first terrorist attack on an aircraft in the Caribbean and the Cuban and Guyana governments immediately accused the United States government of being an accomplice in the terrorist attack. It turned out that both governments were correct.
Evidence revealed that several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban exiles conspired with members of the Venezuela Secret Police to bomb the Cuban aircraft in protest of Castro’s dictatorial policies in Cuba. This was confirmed by the CIA in 2005 that the agency had concrete advance intelligence as early as June 1976 of plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups in Miami to bomb the airline but it did not share the information with Cuba.
Four men who had joined the plane in Trinidad and disembarked the aircraft in Barbados were subsequently arrested in connection with the bombing and murder of 73 persons. They were arrested and tried in Venezuela.
Two were sentenced to 20 years in prison, one was acquitted and moved to Miami, Florida and another escaped from Venezuela and fled to the United States where he was held on charges of illegally entering the US but was later released without being charged.
The nation will never forget Margaret Bradshaw, Sabrina Harrypaul, Seshnarine Kumar, Ann Nelson, Eric Norton, Raymond Persaud, Gordon M. Sobha, Rawle Thomas, Rita Thomas, Violet Thomas and Jacqueline Williams—who lost their lives on that tragic day.

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