In the 30’s of the last century, Camagüey city experienced one of the most curious events in its history. Exactly on June 11th, 1933, the Cuatro Vientos biplane landed at the Ignacio Agramonte airport, coming from Seville.
Its crew, Captain Mariano Barberán and Lieutenant Joaquín Collar, sought to cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop, which was considered a utopia for aeronautics at that time. The goal was to reach Cuba and, if possible, land in Havana. However, after around 40 hours of flight, due to fuel shortage and bad weather combined they decide to land in Camagüey.
Despite this, the flight was a success, so much so that the Cuatro Vientos aviators refused to incorporate equipment to improve communication on their ship. This is how the pilot and writer Franklin Flintstone Montejo told the journalist Jesmir Varona in an interview, who dedicated himself to investigate the history of this journey and capturing it in his book El Enigma del Cuatro Vientos.
“After arriving in Camagüey, Torres Menier tactfully insinuated to Barberán that Zayas-Bazán, the same aviator who had adapted the telegraphy device to his plane, could adapt one to the Cuatro Vientos, without harming its weight and balance. Barberán scratched his bald head and said: You will see, sir, this plane as it is after going around the world, it is not necessary to put any telegraphy on it.”
On June 12th, in the presence of hundreds of Camagüeyans eager to see that biplane in operation, the Cuatro Vientos departed for Havana, and then headed for Mexican lands, a destination it could not reach.
“After having crossed the Atlantic they underestimated the flight to Mexico City, because it was mostly overland. They were almost ready to leave and still did not have the route to follow. That annoyed Lieutenant Collar and the psycho-physical conditions of the pilots are decisive when making a decision in the face of any eventuality that arises. I think that they, trying to escape bad weather, could have gotten into the middle of a storm, with the technology of those years it was not easy to control a plane in the middle of that situation.” –Explained Flintstone Montejo.
It is said that the Mexicans waited for them at their destination for almost 24 hours, but on that crossing the Cuatro Vientos almost completely disappeared, except for one of the lifeguards’ chambers, presumably the only piece recovered from that incident, which even in our days it is not a definitive explanation.
In Camagüey a monument remembers the feat of both aviators. In it you can read “To Barberán and Collar, heroes of the Seville-Camagüey flight, lost in the Havana-Mexico City flight, June 20th, 1933.”
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
