Today In History:  06 October  [1976]   --  Cuban DC-8 is destroyed by two bombs, placed on board by an anti-Castro group.

Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 was a Cuban flight from Barbados to Jamaica that was brought down by a terrorist bomb attack. All 73 people on board the Douglas DC-8 aircraft were killed after two time bombs went off and the plane crashed into the sea. The crash killed every member of the Cuban national fencing team.

Several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban exiles, among them Rafael De Jesus Gutierrez, a Cuban intelligence officer of the Batista regime turned CIA spy after the Cuban revolution, were implicated by the evidence.

PHOTO: CU-T1201, the aircraft involved in the incident (seen in Madrid).

See the Historical Aviation Film Unit website at http://www.aviationfilm.com to get a new history tidbit every day.


Photo Attribution:  GFDL 1.2  via Wikimedia. Clint Groves - https://www.airlinefan.com/airline-photos/Cubana/Douglas/DC-8-40/CU-T1201/1511399/