Centroamerican Air Flight 105 bombing (Alternity)

The bombing of Yucatecan Air Flight 105 was a terrorist attack which occurred on July 20, 1974, over the northwestern Caribbean Sea. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-200, carrying 112 passengers and crew, took off from Cozumel International Airport at 8:00 a.m. (U.S. Central Time) and settled at a cruising altitude of 32,000 ft. by 8:05 a.m., bound for Havana International in Cuba. At exactly 8:24 a.m., the aircraft disappeared from radar roughly forty miles to the west-southwest of Isla County, Cuba. Within thirty minutes, search and rescue aircraft were dispatched by both the US Navy and Coast Guard, along with the destroyers USS John King and Sellers out of Naval Station Cortes. After two days of searching, the crew of Sellers had recovered ten to fifteen bodies, while the John King had joined the search for the aircraft’s wreckage, in conjunction with a special taskforce from the Yucatan Navy. What remained of the primary fuselage was discovered in 2,500 feet of water at 21°36' N 83°48' W on July 25. The black box was recovered via aid of submersible three days later. Analysis of the flight recorder data concluded that a deliberate bombing attack had downed the aircraft, likely originating near the engines. Recovery of the primary wreckage three months later by US and British Navy divers and submersibles confirmed this.

Responsibility for the incident was immediately claimed by the Comunistas of Yucatan, then-engaged in a civil war with the Yucatan federal government. The revelation merely enraged the military of Yucatan into launching retaliatory attacks against several Comunistas positions in the southern region of Campeche District.

Of the 112 passengers and crew aboard YAF 105, none survived, and to this day, many of their remains are still unaccounted for.