32nd anniversary of Cubana air disaster today

Oct 06, 2008 News

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Today marks 32 years since the Cubana air disaster which resulted in the deaths of 73 persons, including 11 Guyanese.

Of the 11 Guyanese that perished in the tragedy, six were medical students heading to Cuba on a scholarship programme.  These were 18-year-old Ann Nelson, Eric Norton, Seshnarine Kumar, and Rawle Thomas, along with 19-year-old Jacqueline Williams and Raymond Persaud.

The other Guyanese passengers were 22-year-old Margaret Bradshaw, the wife of the Second Secretary of the Embassy of Guyana in Cuba; Sabrina Harripaul, who was travelling for medical treatment in Cuba; Gordon Sobha, Violet Thomas and Rita Thomas.

The parents of most of the medical students have either passed away or migrated.
However, one woman – Dorothy Norton – who lost her only son, Eric, in the bombing, mourns her loss to this day. Speaking with Kaieteur News, Mrs. Norton, who also lost her husband in 2006, said that she remembers her son with each passing day.

Norton is yet to see terrorists who killed her son being brought to justice. However, she says that she thanks God for the life that she had with her son, and wishes that his soul rests in peace with all the others who suffered the same fate.

Aside from Guyanese, 57 Cubans, and five North Koreans were also on board the fatal flight.
Cuban Ambassador to Guyana, Pedro Arteaga Cardenas, during an interview with Kaieteur News, noted Cuba’s enormous loss and condemned the vicious terrorist act.  

On this day, he added, all Cubans join in mourning the deaths of 57 of their nationals. He also pointed out that this is one of several attacks Cuba has suffered – with the ongoing blockade by the US and continued imprisonment of five Cuban anti-terrorists.

The five – Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez — were detained on September 12, 1988 and were subjected to a political trial in Miami, which concluded in 2001 with them receiving excessive and arbitrary sentences for alerting their country to acts of terrorism organized in Florida.

Cardenas said that everyone must join in condemning such acts. He also said that he would like to see the persons responsible for the bombing of the aircraft brought to justice.

Last year, on the anniversary of the bombing, it was said that a monument would be erected at Camp and Lamaha Streets in memory of the tragedy.

To date, the project is yet to begin.
Cubana flight 455 was a shuttle from Barbados to Jamaica that was brought down by a terrorist attack on October 6, 1976. All 73 people on board the Douglas DC-8 aircraft were killed in what was then the most deadly terrorist attack in the Western hemisphere. Two time bombs were used, variously described as dynamite or C-4.

At exactly 17:24 hours, nine minutes after take-off from ‘Seawell Airport’ in Barbados, and at an altitude of 18,000 feet, a bomb located in the aircraft’s rear lavatories detonated. 

The captain, Wilfredo Perez, radioed to the control tower, and is recorded as saying, “We have an explosion onboard…We are descending immediately…We have fire on board… We are requesting immediate landing…We have a total emergency!” The plane then went into a rapid descent.

Whilst the pilots tried to return the plane to Seawell Airport, a second bomb exploded, hastening the ensuing catastrophy.

According to reports of the day, upon the realisation that a successful landing was not possible, it appeared that the pilot turned the aircraft away from the beach towards the Atlantic Ocean, saving the lives of the many tourists on land.

This occurred about eight kilometres short of the airport.
Notably among the victims were all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban Fencing Team that had just won all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championships, and many were teenagers.

Several Cuban Government  officials were also on board the aircraft, including Manuel Permuy Hernandez, Communist Party Director of the National Institute of Sports; Jorge de la Nuez Suarez, Communist Party Secretary; Alfonso Gonzalez, National Commissioner of Firearm Sports; and Domingo Chacon Coello, an agent from the Interior Ministry.

The crew on board the flight was also Cuban. Four men were arrested in connection with the bombing, and a trial was held in Venezuela. Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo Lozano were sentenced to 20-year prison terms, Orlando Bosch was acquitted because of technical defects in the prosecution evidence, and Luis Posada Carriles was held for eight years while awaiting a final sentence, but eventually fled.

He later entered the United States, where he was held on charges of entering the country illegally, but was released on April 19, 2007.

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