Cubana Flight 455 was a Cubana de Aviación flight departing from Barbados, via Trinidad, to Cuba. On October 6, 1976 two timebombs variously described as dynamite or C-4 planted on the Douglas DC-8 aircraft exploded, killing all 73 people on board in the most deadly commercial airlines incident in the Western hemisphere until the June 23, 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 over the North Atlantic Ocean, which caused 329 deaths. Evidence implicated several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban exiles and members of the Venezuelan secret police DISIP. Political complications quickly arose when Cuba accused the US government of being an accomplice to the attack. CIA documents released in 2005 indicate that the agency had prior knowledge that the bombing was going to take place. October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Cubana de Aviación is Cubas domestic and international flag carrier airline. ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... A time bomb is usually an improvised explosive device comprising a battery, detonator, an explosive charge, and a timer, which substitutes for a fuse or trigger. ... Dynamite is an explosive based on the explosive potential of nitroglycerin using diatomaceous earth (Kieselguhr) as an adsorbent. ... Preparing C-4 explosive C-4 or Composition-4 is a common variety of military plastic explosive. ... The Douglas DC-8 is a four-engined jet airliner, manufactured between 1959 and 1972. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Air India Flight 182 was a Boeing 747 that exploded on June 23, 1985 while at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland; all 329 on board were killed, of whom eighty two were children and 280 were Canadian citizens. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Or Opposition to a Participatory Democracy (of Only Party) created by the Popular Socialist Revolution, named The Cuban Revolution The Opposition to Fidel Castros Cuban government is largely unofficial and illegal within Cuba due to the political system led by Fidel Castro being a one party state. ... Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state. ... The Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención (Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, DISIP) is the national intelligence agency of Venezuela. ...

Four men were arrested in connection with the bombing: 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 now lives in Miami, Florida, and Luis Posada Carriles escaped from prison and eventually fled to the United States, where he is currently being held on charges of entering the country illegally as of August 2006. Orlando Bosch is a Cuban exile and former CIA-backed terrorist, head of CORU organization, which the FBI has described as an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization. He has been accused of having taken part in Operation Condor and of a variety of terrorist attacks. ... Nickname: The Magic City, Location in Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida. ... Luis Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is an anti-Castro Cuban émigré who is alleged to have been involved in numerous violent terrorist plots, including hotel bombings and the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Flight 455 in which seventy-three people were killed. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Crash

On October 6, 1976, Flight CU-455 was scheduled to fly the following route: Guyana to Trinidad, Trinidad to Barbados, Barbados to Kingston, Jamaica, and finally Kingston to Havana, Cuba. October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Trinidad (Spanish, Trinity) is the largest and most populous of the 23 islands which make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. ... The City of Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica. ... Havana (Spanish in full: La Habana, formerly named San Cristóbal de La Habana; UN/LOCODE: CU HAV) is the capital of Cuba and of one of the 14 provinces of Cuba, the one named Ciudad de La Habana), with a population of more than 2. ...

At 17:24, nine minutes after takeoff from Barbados's Seawell airport and at an altitude of 18,000 feet, a bomb located in the aircraft's rear lavatories exploded. The captain, Wilfredo Pérez Pérez, radioed to the control tower: "We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately! ... We have fire on board! We are requesting immediate landing! We have a total emergency!" Sir Grantley Adams International Airport The Sir Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA), (IATA identifier BGI) / (ICAO Airport Code is TBPB) located at 13° 14′ 24″ N, 059° 29′ 13″ W, in Seawell, Christ Church on the island of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean. ...

The plane went into a rapid descent, while the pilots unsuccessfully tried to return the plane to Seawell Airport. A second bomb exploded during the following minutes, causing the plane to crash. Realizing a successful landing was no longer possible, it appears that the pilot turned the craft away from the beach and towards the Atlantic Ocean, saving the lives of many tourists. This occurred about eight kilometres short of the airport.

All 48 passengers and 25 crew aboard the plane died: 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five North Koreans. Among the dead 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 Championship; many were teenagers. In the broadest possible sense, fencing is the art and science of armed combat involving cutting, stabbing, or bludgeoning weapons directly manipulated by hand, rather than shot or thrown (in other words, swords, knives, pikes, bayonets, batons, clubs, and so on). ...

Several officials of the Cuban government were also aboard the plane: Manuel Permuy Hernández, communist party director of the National Institute of Sports (INDER); Jorge de la Nuez Suárez, communist party secretary for the shrimp fleet; Alfonso González, National Commissioner of firearm sports; and Domingo Chacón Coello, an agent from the Interior Ministry [1].

The 11 Guyanese passengers included 18 and 19-year-old medical students, and the young wife of a Guyanese diplomat.

The five Koreans were government officials and a cameraman.

Judicial Proceedings

Arrests

Hours after the explosions, Trinidad authorities arrested Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo Lozano, two Venezuelan men who had boarded the plane in Trinidad and checked their baggage to Cuba but who had exited the plane in Barbados and flown back to Trinidad. Ricardo had been travelling with a false identity under the name of José Vázquez García.

Lugo and Ricardo confessed, and declared to be acting under the orders of Luis Posada Carriles. Their testimony, along with other evidence, implicated Carriles and another Venezuelan, Orlando Bosch.

On 14 October 1976, Posada and Bosch were both arrested in Caracas, Venezuela and the offices of Investigaciones Comerciales e Industriales C.A. (ICICA), a private investigator's company owned by Posada, were raided. Weapons, explosives and a radio transmitter were found. Ricardo was an employee of ICICA at the time of the attack, while Lugo worked as a photographer for the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons. October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... City motto: Ave María Santísima, sin pecado concebida, en el primer instante de su ser natural. ... A private investigator, PI or private eye, is a person who undertakes investigations, usually for a private citizen or some other entity not involved with a government or police organization. ...

On October 20, authorities of Trinidad, Cuba, Barbados, Guyana and Venezuela held a meeting in Port of Spain, during which the decision was taken to hold the trial in Venezuela, since the four accused were citizens of that country. Shorty after, Lugo and Ricardo were deported to Venezuela. October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ... Port of Spain, population 49,000 (2000), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the countrys second largest city by population, after San Fernando. ...

Military trial

On August 25, 1977, Judge Delia Estava Moreno referred the case to a military tribunal, charging all four co-conspirators with treason. August 25 is the 237th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (238th in leap years), with 128 days remaining. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

In September of 1980, a Venezuelan military judge acquitted all four men.

The prosecutor appealed, arguing that a military court was the wrong forum to try the case for two reasons: none of the men were military personnel in 1976, and the crime of qualified homicide or aggravated homicide cannot be tried by a military tribunal. The Military Court of Appeals agreed and surrendered jurisdiction, rendering the acquittal moot. The Judge ruled that the accused "are civilians and the crimes imputed to them are governed by the penal (and not the military) code... Civilians and common law crimes are not subject to the dispositions of the Code of Military Justice..."

Civilian trial

The four were then charged with aggravated homicide and treason before a civilian court.

On August 8, 1985, Venezuelan judge Alberto Perez Marcano of the 11th Penal Court convicted Lugo and Ricardo, sentencing them each to 20 years in prison. The judge reduced the penalty to its lowest limit "due to the extenuating circumstance of no prior criminal records." Orlando Bosch was acquitted, because the evidence gathered by the Barbados authorities during the investigation could not be used in the Venezuela trial, as it was presented too late and had not been translated into Spanish. August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Posada fled from the San Juan de los Morros penitentiary on the eve of the pronouncement of his sentence. He had been confined in this prison following two previous failed escape attempts. Allegations were made that Venezuelan authorities were bribed to help him escape. No verdict was entered against Posada because, according to the Venezuelan Penal Code, judicial proceedings cannot continue without the presence of the accused. The court issued an arrest warrant against him which is still pending as of November, 2005. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Aftermath

A different judge then ordered the case reviewed by a higher court. The Venezuelan government declined to appeal the case any further, and in November 1987 Bosch was freed. He had spent 11 years in jail despite having been acquitted twice.

Lugo and Lozano were released in 1993 and continue to reside in Venezuela.

Posada fled to Panama, then to the United States. In April of 2005, a new warrant for Posada's arrest in connection with the bombing was issued by Venezuela by the government of Hugo Chávez. In September of 2005, a US immigration judge ruled that Posada should not be deported to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could be subject to torture. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (IPA: ) (born July 28, 1954) is the 53rd[1] and current President of Venezuela. ...

Political implications

Some anti-Castro groups have justified the attack by stating that the plane was a military target because it contained military personnel and high-level Cuban and North Korean government officials, and/or that the attack was revenge for other alleged terrorist attacks originated by the Cuban government. Another explanation advanced by these groups is that the attack could have been ordered by Castro himself as a way to eliminate political opponents. Finally, they also point to the lack of reliability of Cubana de Aviacion, noting that the crash could have been an accident that the Castro government used to further its political agenda of opposition to the US government.

Possible FBI and CIA knowledge

Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born naturalized Venezuelan, was the Director of Counterintelligence at Venezuela's FBI equivalent, the DISIP, from 1967 to 1974. A U.S. Government document released through FOIA also confirms Posada's status with the CIA: "Luis Posada, in whom CIA has an operational interest - Posada is receiving approximately $300 per month from CIA". Posada was heavily involved with right-wing anti-Castro groups, in particular the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) and the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations - CORU), led at the time by Orlando Bosch. The Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención (Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, DISIP) is the national intelligence agency of Venezuela. ... The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United States. ... The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to overthrowing the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. ... Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) has been described by the FBI as an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization. It has taken part in operation Condor, organizing Chilean former minister Orlando Leteliers assassination in Washington, D.C. in 1976. ...

A declassified CIA document dated October 12, 1976, quotes Posada as saying, a few days after a plate fund-raising meeting for CORU held around September 15th, "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner... Orlando has the details" (Source Comment: The identites of "We" and "Orlando" were not known at the time.) [2]. October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

A declassified FBI document dated October 21, 1976, quotes CORU member Secundino Carrera as stating that CORU "was responsible for the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 on October 6, 1976... this bombing and the resulting deaths were fully justified because CORU was at war with the Fidel Castro regime." Carrera also expressed his pleasure over the attention paid to the United States over the bombing, as it was taking attention off of himself and his associate. [3] October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

Cuba

The Cuban Government claims that Flight 455 is just one of many terrorist plots committed against Cuba by the United States. [4] [5] A monument was erected in Barbados to the memory of the people killed in the bombing, and it was visited several times by Fidel Castro, including a visit during the CARICOM meeting in December 2005 during which Cuban officials called for Posada "to be brought to justice so as to bring closure to this egregious incident that caused so much pain to the people of the region." Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba. ... The Caribbean Community and Common Market or CARICOM was established by the Treaty of Chaguaramas which came into effect on August 1, 1973. ...

See also

• Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
• Air safety
• Cuba-United States relations

Citing the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, an aviation accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person... Air safety is a broad term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorisation of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through appropriate regulation, as well as through education and training. ... Cuba and the United States of America have had a mutual interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. ...

External links

• Aviation Safety Network for Cubana 455
• PDF Report on the Judicial Proceedings (in Spanish)
• 1998 Barbados Monument located in the parish of Saint James, dedicated to the victims of the aircraft bombing.
• Picture of the airplane