Cubana Flight 455

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Cubana Flight 455
Accident summary
Accident type Time bomb attack led to explosion
place 5 miles west of Bridgetown Airport
13 ° 3 ′ 31.8 ″  N , 59 ° 33 ′ 51.3 ″  W
date October 6, 1976
Fatalities 73
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Douglas DC- 8-43
operator Cubana de Aviación
Mark CU-T1201
Departure airport Bridgetown Grantley Adams Airport , Barbados
Destination airport Norman Manley International Airport , Jamaica
Lists of aviation accidents
Cubana Flight 455 Memorial in Bridgetown, Barbados (2013)

Cubana flight 455 was a flight of the Cuban airline Cubana from Georgetown / Guyana to Havana / Cuba with stopovers in Trinidad , Bridgetown / Barbados and Kingston / Jamaica . A few minutes after taking off from Barbados on October 6, 1976, time bombs deposited by Cuban exiles on board the DC-8 exploded , causing the plane to crash. All 73 people on board were killed. Until the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York , it was the worst aviation attack on the American continent.

Sequence of events

After the plane from Guyana landed in Trinidad, the Cubans in exile Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano checked in as passengers to Barbados. As far as is known, they deposited two time bombs during the flight. You left the plane in Bridgetown and flew back to Trinidad.

The first explosive device detonated five minutes after taking off from Bridgetown. The captain of the machine, Wilfredo Pérez Pérez , was able to contact air traffic control in Bridgetown and change course back to the starting point in Barbados. After the detonation of the second bomb, he decided to stay above the sea with the crashing machine so as not to endanger people on the island. All 73 people on board were killed in the crash into the sea.

Legal processing

The two perpetrators and their alleged clients, Orlando Bosch Ávila and Luis Posada Carriles , were later arrested in Venezuela and convicted in several court cases. Apparently, the attack was carried out on behalf of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORA).

Immediately after the crime, the Castro government accused the US foreign intelligence service, the CIA, of authorship, but its involvement was never proven.

The victims

The victims were 57 Cubans, 11 Guyans and five North Koreans . Among the Cubans was the 24-man national team in fencing , including mostly young people, as well as some high officials. The fencing team had taken part in a Caribbean-Central American tournament in Guyana .

Culture of remembrance

In Barbados there is a memorial in the form of an obelisk for the victims of the attack .

See also

literature

  • Ann Louise Bardach: Cuba Confidential. Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana , New York 2002, pp. 186ff. ISBN 0-375-50489-3

Web links