Total Persons on Board:
Three:
- Major Camilo Cienfuegos
- Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban soldier
- Luciano Fariñas Rodriguez, pilot
When:
October 28th, 1959
Weather:
Cold temperatures, poor visibility and weather
Flight Route:
From Camagüey to Havana, Cuba.
Area Believed Crashed:
Between Camaguey and Havana - likely in water
Reason for flight:
Personnel transport
Type Plane:
A twin-engine, six-seat Cessna 310 plane, number 53
Search efforts:
Fidel Castro, one day into the search, took personal charge of the search
effort, leading for his personal plane, the "Sierra Maestra".
Cuban Air Force and civilian planes searched the rolling cattle country until
dark without finding a trace of the missing plane, and resumed at dawn. Night
flights have been banned over Cuba since anti-Castro exiles began dropping arms
at night from small planes
On October 30th, an amateur radio operator at Placetas, in the Las Villas
Province of Cuba, reported he had received word wreckage of a plane had been
seen on the north coast of Camaguey., but nothing came of the report.
Radio Reloj said a Cuban Airlines plane taking part in the search
sighted two small planes on the ground at Cayo Anguila, a key in the Atlantic
about 60 miles north of the port city of Caibarien. The the Cuban Air
Force said later one of its search pilots reported two planes at Cayo Anguila
apparently had been destroyed some time ago and that neither was Cienfuegos'
plane.
On November 7th, the U.S. Air Force even searched the Florida Everglades for
the missing plane, based on a freighter's report of
sighting the plane 50 miles north of Cuba.
Controversy, Theories, and other Trivia:
The plane sent a routine radio report to headquarters an hour after
taking off from Camaguey at 6 p.m. Nothing further was
heard.
Rumors concerning Cienfuegos's disappearance have been rife. Some have
speculated that Cienfuegos was killed on the orders of Fidel Castro; others
believed Raúl Castro had murdered the more popular revolutionary in a fit of
jealousy. These rumors have been difficult to uphold, however, as Cienfuegos
had appeared exceptionally loyal to Castro throughout his involvement, and
had vigorously supported the arrest of Matos only days earlier.
Che Guevara, who was also close to Cienfuegos (naming his son Camilo
after the fallen revolutionary), dismissed any rumors of Castro's
involvement. Another rumor circulating was that a Cuban air force fighter
plane shot Cienfuegos down mistaking his plane for a hostile intruder.
Historians seem to agree that Camilo's death is more likely to have
been an accident, and not the result of foul play.
On November 9th, Juan Vieras, who flies for the Francisco Sugar
Co., part owner of the King Ranch in central Cuba, and had given some flying
instruction to the pilot of Cienfuegos' plane, was arrested.
|
