275 Cubans stranded in Dominican Republic after Nicaragua denied aircraft landing

A group of 275 Cubans, including minors, became stranded on Friday at the Las Americas airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

The group originally had Nicaragua as their final destination. However, the Central American country did not allow the Air Century charter plane to land, one of the stranded people told ADN America, on condition of anonymity.

The flight left Havana at 4 p.m. on July 7, made a two-hour stopover in Santo Domingo and a half-hour technical stop in Kingston, Jamaica, before departing for Managua, said another source whose family was on board the plane.  

"When we were arriving in Nicaragua, the pilot of the plane made an announcement that we were returning to Santo Domingo for operational reasons that did not allow us to land. They were asking Nicaragua for landing permission and they denied it," the source stated.

The plane landed in Santo Domingo again at 3 a.m. this Friday.

The Cubans were taken to a waiting room at the airport and told by the authorities that they had to wait until 6 a.m. to see if another plane could take them to Managua.

No plane arrived at the agreed time and the group complained to the airport staff. They were told that the plane would arrive at 9 a.m. and that did not happen either, the source added. 

"Here we are the 275 Cubans waiting for the plane to pick us up and take us to our final destination, which is Nicaragua, which was for the ticket that each of us paid for. So far they only tell us that today they should come and pick us up," he added.

"Supposedly it's because of internal Air Century problems, but they won't tell us more."

The source told ADN America that to his knowledge this is not the first Air Century flight to have problems landing in Nicaragua. 

Those stranded paid between $3,500 and $4,200 for each airline ticket.

This is a developing story.