On October 6, 1976, Flight CU-455 was scheduled to fly from Guyana to Havana, Cuba via Trinidad, Barbados, and Kingston.
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!”
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.
Several officials of the Cuban government were also aboard the plane: Manuel Permuy Hernández, director of the National Institute of Sports (INDER); Jorge de la Nuez Suárez, secretary for the shrimp fleet; Alfonso González, National Commissioner of firearm sports; and Domingo Chacón Coello, an agent from the Interior Ministry.
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.
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