On October 06, 1976 a terrorist bomb exploded on Cubana Airline flight 455 causing it to crash into the sea off the coast of St James Barbados killing all 73 of the passengers and crew.
Of the passengers there were 57 Cuban, 11 Guyanese and 5 North Koreans. The Cuban national youth fencing team were among the dead, as were a number of young Guyanese academic scholarship winners who were traveling to Cuba to pursue studies in medicine.
On October 15, 2012 a monument was unveiled on the Turkeyen Campus of the University of Guyana in the vicinity of the pond, east of the University’s library. The monument takes the form of a fountain; four elevated stairs and a plaque with the names of those who died as well as the flag of Guyana, Cuba, Barbados and Korea.
The names of the 11 Guyanese are:
- Margaret Bradshaw
- Sabrina Harripaul,
- Seshnarine Kumar
- Ann Nelson
- Harold Norton
- Raymond Persaud
- Gordon Sobha
- Rawle Thomas
- Rita Thomas,
- Violet Thomas
- Jacqueline Williams
In 1998, on a visit to Barbados the Cuban President Fidel Castro dedicated a monument to the 73 victims of CU-455 in the Paynes Bay area.
