The Bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455

Content Warning: This episode discusses a plane crash as well as injuries and death associated with it.

The Bombing

 It’s October 1976, and the Cuban national fencing team is on a high. The 24 member team, mostly young adults, dominated the Central America and Caribbean championships winning all 22 gold medals. And as one might have guess, the team was looking forward to returning home to properly celebrate their accomplishments. As such to come home, the team would take a flight from Venezuela to Trinidad, then to Barbados, then to Jamaica and finally landed in Cuba. 

 In Barbados, the team boarded the Cubana Airlines flight 455 where the Cubans were just 57 of the 73 persons on the flight. The others on the plane were eleven Guyanese, most who were completing medical studies in Cuba; and five North Korean. In total, they were 48 passengers and 25 crew members. The flight was scheduled to leave at 11:21am but a labour strike at the airport would cause it to be delayed for an hour. As such, at 12:45pm the flight departed from Seawell International Airport (now the Sir Grantley Adams Airport) for Jamaica.

But the flight never reached Jamaica for it was just around nine minutes in the air, when the first C-4 bomb, placed under seat 10 beside the left wing, went off. The two pilots, Wilfredo Perez and Miguel Espinosa Cabrera, tried to stir the plane back to the airport. A recording retrieve later captured one of the pilots shouting: 

“We’ve had an explosion abroad… we are descending immediately… we have fire on board… we are requesting landing.”

Air Traffic Control gave clearance for the men to land the plane where immediately, emergency teams were on standby waiting for the plane to head back. But they were within three miles off the coast when the second bomb, near the plane’s washroom, went off. It tore the plane in two. The same recording captures Cabrera then shouting: 

“That’s worse. Head toward the water. Felo, head toward the water”. 

Soon after, the plane crashed into the water. The entire incident was less than five minutes. It was fishermen who were on the job off Barbados’ coast who were the witnesses of the event. Those same fisherman would spur into action hours later, trying to find survivors and picking up pieces of the plane. In the end, all 73 persons were killed with only eight bodies recovered. 

Soon after, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ricardo Alarcon, arranged for the return of the victims’ body. Almost a week later on October 15, 1976, Cuban president Fidel Castro, delivered a speech at the funeral services at Havana ’s Plaza of the Revolution. With almost a million persons in attendance, Castro opened his speech with the following:

“Moved, mourning, outraged, we meet today in this historic square to bid farewell-if only symbolically-to the remains of our assassinated brothers and sisters in the brutal act of terrorism carried out against a civil plane in flight with 73 people on board, among whom 57 were Cubans. Most of the remains already lie in the abysmal depths of the ocean with the tragedy denying to their next of kin even the consolation of their bodies. It has only been possible to recover the remains of eight Cubans. Thus they become the symbol of all those who fell. The only remains we will bury in our soil of those 57 healthy, vigorous, enthusiastic, devoted and young fellowmen of ours. Their average age was scarcely over 30 years although their lives were nevertheless, lives fully rich in their contribution to work, study, sports and the affection of their closet relatives and to the Revolution”

The Bombers 

Immediately after news come through about the bombing, Bajan officials started investigating. Their technical examination concluded that the crash was cause by two explosions in the cabin area which meant, the bombs had to be brought on in person. So those responsible had to either commit suicide or left the plane after planting the bombs. 

So upon looking through the master list of passengers, they realised that there was two passengers who boarded the plane in Trinidad without checking any luggage but then left the plane in Barbados - Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo. Both men were Venezuelans and just a day after the bombing, they were arrested in Port of Spain. 

According to Keith Bolender in his book, “Voices From The Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba” : 

“Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo had boarded the plane in Port of Spain with the intention of planting two bombs in the rear part of the aircraft a few minutes before landing in Barbados. The plastic C-4 explosives, concealed in a photographer’s bag, were timed to go off approximately one hour after takeoff, giving the two men ample time to disembark and return to Trinidad… the plan was to have it destroyed over open waters, where any evidence would be impossible to recover. The pair had failed to take into account the delay caused by the striking airport staff.”

During the police investigation, Lugo and Ricardo stated the masterminds behind the bombing were Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch. It was Ricardo who met the men through a private detective agency in Venezuela and convinced his friend, Lugo, to join him in the plan. Still, the masterminds were apart of prior Cuban attacks. Bosch was linked to more than 50 bombings targeting Cubans. He was even arrested in Florida back in 1968 for attacking a Polish freighter enroute to Cuba. Posada on the other hand, was apart of the Cuban-America team that invaded Cuba during the 1961 Bay of Pigs incident. Throughout the rest of the decade and the early 1970’s, he served as a CIA agent. By the mid 70’s, he founded Coordination of United Revolutionary Organisation (CORU) which the CIA described  “an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organisation”. Days after the bombing, CORU claimed responsibility for the attack. A declassified CIA document dated October 12, 1976 quoted Posada at a prior CORU meeting saying, “We are going to hit a Cuban airliner… Orlando has the details”. 

Almost a year after the bombing, the Venezuelan government referred the case to a militarily court where Posada, Bosch, Lugo and Ricardo were all charged for treason. However, three years later, a judge acquitted them. Upon a outcry by prosecutors, the case was turned over to civil court. In August 1985, Lugo and Ricardo was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Bosch, on the other hand, was then acquitted on a technicality to which he returned illegally to the United States. However, he was detained by authorities for violating his parole over the 1968 Polish freighter attack. The Justice Department recommended that Bosch be deported back to Venezuela citing him as one of the hemisphere’s most deadly terrorists. Still, that never happened as Bosch was granted pardoned by then US president, George Bush Sr. 

Then, Posada was never sentenced, for the day before his day his judgement, he escaped from prison. He was then implicated in the bombings of Cuban hotels in 1997 which resulted in the death of an Italian tourist. In 2000, Posada was arrested during an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro at a conference at the University of Panama. Authorities found more than 33 pounds of C-4 explosives in the auditorium. In 2004, Posada was sentenced to prison for that incident but four months later, then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso issued him a pardon. Posada returned illegally to the US in 2005 where just like Bosch, he was arrested by immigration authorities. Still, he was acquitted of these immigration violations in 2007. He died in Florida in 2018, at the age of 90. Up until his death, a warrant was still out for his arrest for the 1976 incident but the US refused to deport Posada citing fears of him been tortured.

In Memoriam 

Today, the tragedy is immortalised across the region. Every year, Havana residents make a pilgrimage to the Cristóbal Colón Cemetery, where the remains from some of the victims of the bombing are laid. Monuments in remembrance of the victims were built in both Barbados and Guyana. In October 2019, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, David Comissiong called on the government to revisit a proposal to go to the United Nations to declare October 6 as UN International Day Against Terrorism. This was echoed again in 2022 by the Bajan based, Coalition of Civil Society Organisation.

Then, in December 6, 2022, during a CARICOM wreath laying ceremony of the event, St Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves announced that henceforth, October 6 will be known as Caribbean Day Against Terrorism. At the same ceremony, Guyanese president, Dr. Irfaan Ali, stated that the bombing was the “defining moment” that strengthen the relationship between Cuba and the English-speaking Caribbean: 

“Cuba, Guyana, CARICOM did not succumb to terrorism, did not fall to terrorism, but grew stronger and built better relationships and advanced human dignity.”

However, it was the Bajan prime minister, Mia Mottley, who would some up the legacy of the event and how the Caribbean will continue to move forward inspite of the tragedy: 

“May the memory of those who have fallen inspire us always to preach the virtues of love, justice and solidarity, and may their memory always inspire us to preserve this Caribbean as a zone of peace.”