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Posted on Tue, Nov. 12, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
Cuban family escapes on plane
Pilot, 7 relatives land in Key West
By Jennifer Babson and Luisa Yanez. jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST - A yellow single-engine cargo plane carried eight family members
from Cuba to the Keys on Monday, as two Air National Guard jets quickly
scrambled for what turned out to be an escort to freedom.
The Russian-made Antonov-2, a plane commonly used in Cuban agricultural
transport and cargo, touched down at 10:38 a.m. and taxied to the west end of
Key West International Airport.
The plane's left tail bore a Cuban flag. The aircraft had only enough seats
-- including jump seats that fold down -- for three passengers, a pilot and a
copilot.
Onboard were four men, including a pilot who the FBI said worked for a Cuban
firm as a crop-duster, three women and a 2-year old girl clad in a blue dress.
''We believe they are all related,'' Immigration and Naturalization Service
spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia said. INS officials would not disclose their
names Monday.
The unexpected arrivals smiled as they carried two bags onto the tarmac and
were immediately surrounded by police.
''They were dressed like they were on vacation,'' said an airport employee
who watched the group being led to the east side of the airport ramp, where INS
and U.S. Customs offices are located. "They were smiling and casually
walking with Customs and INS agents as two Key West police cruisers followed
them.''
The Cubans were immediately taken into the custody of INS agents, who
interviewed them for more than six hours, feeding them a lunch of tuna fish,
turkey, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. About 7 p.m., they boarded a
white van headed for the Krome Avenue detention center in west Miami-Dade.
There they were expected to be processed and released into the custody of
friends and family.
When asked shortly after landing who the owner of the plane was, the Cuban
pilot gave authorities a one-word answer, according to a source at the scene of
the landing:
"Fidel.''
A bomb dog was dispatched to sniff the plane for possible explosives.
Nearly four hours after he landed, federal authorities had the Cuban pilot
step back into the plane to move it to another part of the airport.
As the Cuban plane approached U.S. airspace, it was detected thousands of
miles away in Riverside, Calif., by the Air & Marine Interdiction
Coordination Center, a radar tracking facility that identifies all planes
entering U.S. air space, according to U.S. Customs spokesman Zachary Mann.
The center notified the U.S. military that an errant plane was on approach
from Cuba. Military brass quickly ordered two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets
from Homestead Air Reserve Base to intercept the plane.
A Customs plane also happened to be in the area on routine patrol, Mann
said.
Key West airport administrators didn't know the plane was heading their way
until it had nearly landed, according to Peter Horton, the airport's manager.
''We had advance knowledge of it, but not much, just a few minutes,'' Horton
said. "When we got the call that they were on the way, they were already in
our flight pattern.''
Witnesses said the landing seemed to come out of nowhere on a sleepy Monday
morning.
''It was a little bit of a surprise. We didn't know what was going on,''
said Jeff Fitch, an employee of Island City Flying.
"I saw it land, and it was no big deal. They seemed to know what they
were doing.''
Though an FBI agent was on the scene Monday, it appeared unlikely the pilot
would face any charges for taking the plane.
''There is no hijacking or anything, so there is no reason for FBI
involvement. We were there to monitor the situation in case it turned out to be
something,'' said Judy Orihuela, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Miami.
Cuban government officials in Washington, D.C., did not release any details
on the plane, its pilot or passengers Monday.
''Apparently, it was an act of piracy,'' said Luis Fernández, a
spokesman at the Cuban Interests Section.
''We're waiting to see what actions will be taken'' by the U.S. government.
Typically, the Cuban government sends pilots to Florida to retrieve
government-owned planes they say have been illegally taken.
For the eight Cuban migrants, the scenario will be considerably different
than that of another dramatic arrival of migrants Oct. 29, when more than 200
Haitians jumped from a 50-foot boat and swarmed onto the Rickenbacker Causeway.
Under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans who reach U.S. soil --
whether by sea or air -- are quickly paroled into the community, often within
hours of their arrivals and following processing at Krome. After a year, they
can apply for permanent residency.
In the case of the Haitian migrants who arrived last month, most are still
in detention at Krome detention center and at a Broward County facility, and
face repatriation.
State Department officials were monitoring the situation as it unfolded
Monday, according to a government source, with an eye toward the plane's return
to Cuba.
Herald staff writer Nancy San Martin contributed to this report.
Cuban plane interception went by the book
By Oscar Corral. ocorral@herald.com
The interception of an unauthorized airplane from Cuba by two Air Force F-15
fighter jets Monday was a successful execution of national security procedures
set in place years ago during the Cold War, a spokesman for the Florida National
Guard said.
In a time when even a commercial aircraft could spell danger, the armed
forces remain in high alert for any unusual activity in or near U.S. airspace.
Monday's incident in Key West showed the military's readiness, said Lt. Col. Ron
Tittle, chief spokesman for the guard, whose pilots flew the jets.
''This is a typical textbook case,'' Tittle said. "The purpose of air
defense is to respond to anything that could be a threat. In this case, they
didn't know what it was, so they scrambled to identify what the threat may be.''
The aircraft turned out to be a single-engine, Russian-made Antonov cargo
plane carrying eight Cuban migrants. Two F-15s escorted the plane to Key West
International Airport, where immigration authorities took the Cubans into
custody.
Maj. Don Arias, chief spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense
Command, said even if the aircraft's pilots had harmful intentions, they would
have never reached their target.
''There is no doubt in my mind militarily that they wouldn't have even
gotten close,'' Arias said.
Once the plane reached about halfway between Cuba and Key West, it entered
the Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, an area of airspace around the
United States monitored closely by radar.
The Cuban biplane was first detected thousands of miles away in Riverside,
Calif., by U.S. Customs through the Air & Marine Interdiction Coordination
System, a radar tracking facility that identifies all planes entering U.S.
airspace, Customs spokesman Zachary Mann said.
Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle also detected the plane and
alerted the Florida Air National Guard at Homestead Air Reserve Base, which is
on 24-hour alert. Within minutes, F-15 pilots were heading toward the plane.
During the Cold War, Florida-based fighter jets were scrambled several times
when Russian bombers cruised the state's coast, Tittle said.
Herald staff writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.
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