A Cessna 402 operated by Flamingo Air crashed in dense brush in North Andros on Friday, July 10 — Bahamas Independence Day — killing all 10 people aboard shortly after the aircraft left Nassau on what should have been a roughly 20-minute flight to San Andros. Among the dead were five members of the band Da Pond Band, a beloved local music group whose performances had become a fixture at community festivals throughout the archipelago.
The Bahamas’ Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority said the plane “encountered difficulties and crashed into bushes before landing” and is investigating the cause. Prime Minister Philip Davis initially said one person had survived but later confirmed that victim died of their injuries. Following the disaster, the government temporarily suspended Flamingo Air’s operating certificate.
Band leader Giovanni McKenzie, lead guitarist Rashad Storr, bass player Mateo Winder, lead singer Travis Johnson and Tonique Gilot all perished in the crash. The five formed the engine of a group that had built its reputation delivering the kind of music that fills a regatta with life. Popular disc jockey Melvin Henfield, known as DJ Fresh, was also among the dead.
The Core of Da Pond Band
Singer Lamar Polhamus said the band had lost “the core, the heart, and the life of the band.” His statement captured the magnitude of what the surviving members face — the sudden absence of the very people who defined its sound and spirit.
Polhamus requested space, time, support and prayers from those who had followed the band’s music over the years. He asked for patience as the surviving musicians try to absorb what has happened, describing the road ahead as long and difficult. The words reflected a group grappling not only with grief but with the practical reality of how, or whether, it can continue.
Shaniese Miller, one of the surviving musicians, said the band members had always stuck together like a unit, describing a group that operated less like a collection of performers and more like a family.
Headed to Celebrate Heritage
The musicians had been traveling toward the All Andros and Berry Islands Regatta, an annual event that celebrates Bahamian culture and heritage through music, sloop/boat racing and food. Instead of taking the stage, the group was killed when the aircraft went down.
Events like the All-Andros and the Berry Island Regatta serve as gathering points for Bahamian communities, blending sailing traditions with celebrations of heritage and identity. Music sits at the center of those festivities, and Da Pond Band had become part of that tradition — the sort of act whose presence signaled that the party had begun. The band’s absence from the stage will be felt not just by fans but by the culture the regatta was built to honor.
A Nation Mourns
The loss has cut deeply across a nation where regatta season draws families from island to island and where live bands are woven into the fabric of the festivities. Each of the 10 lives lost represents its own family, its own community and its own set of connections severed in an instant.
In a nation as tightly knit as the Bahamas, where islands are small and reputations travel quickly, a loss of this size touches nearly everyone in some way. The regatta the band was set to play was meant to be a moment of joy and connection. Instead, it has become bound up with mourning, a reminder of how swiftly celebration can turn to grief.
For now, the emphasis remains on the people lost: McKenzie, Storr, Winder, Johnson and Gilot, five musicians who spent their careers bringing Bahamian audiences together. Their music, and the joy it created at events like the regatta, stands as a testament to what the community has lost. The band that always stuck together like a unit now confronts the hardest chapter in its history — one it never expected to face.
