Cuban Pilot defects in AN-2

“The pilot of the plane notified the Miami-Dade County tower at TNT Airport that he was low on fuel and had to land there minutes before he landed,” said Greg Chin
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Missed it by that much. :rolleyes:
 
Some fine journalism... tower at TNT...there isn't one...

Rather interesting choice of airports. Middle of nowhere. I guess he wanted to follow the rules for not having ADS-B...
 
Love it.
Trillions of dollars in radar and aircraft patrolling the airspace between Cuba and the US of A and he gets through in a biplane.
Now I don't feel so bad about being invisible on radar.
 
Surprised that he had enough gas to make landfall in the US. Guess he wanted to avoid the hassle at the boarder.
 
frfly172 said:
Surprised that he had enough gas to make landfall in the US. Guess he wanted to avoid the hassle at the boarder.
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Why? Looks like Sancti Spíritus to Tamami is about 325mi. Wikipedia shows the range of AN-2 as 525mi. If he departed with full fuel, even with a stop, he should have had sufficient fuel.
 
Shepherd said:
Love it.
Trillions of dollars in radar and aircraft patrolling the airspace between Cuba and the US of A and he gets through in a biplane.
Now I don't feel so bad about being invisible on radar.
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Same thing 40 years ago when a German teenager landed a Cessna in Red Square. Who needs stealth B21s when we have Skyhawks!

Racerx said:
Dude flew 30 feet above the waves
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Probably as high as the plane would climb....

To be serious for second - got to admire that determination - I wish him well.
 
So if it took 18 hours to go 191 NM. Average ground speed was 11 KTS. That is one slow plane.
 
Why didn’t he just go to Key West? It’s only 90 miles from Havana.
 
Pugs said:
The AEROSTAT balloon in R2916 is designed to do just that. Wonder if it was up?
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The AN-2 was probably so slow it was filtered out by the software and never displayed as an air target. Doppler radars have blind speeds and usually the radar is adjusted so that the blind speeds correspond with stuff that wouldn't be aircraft.
 
"Cuban authorities had detained his mother and sister in Santa Clara after Martínez flew out"

So what does Diaz-Canel exactly do with the family of misbehaving citizens?
I mean, it's not exactly N. Korea.
 
Daleandee said:
Does he get to stay? More importantly ... can he keep the plane? :D
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That was my question. Who gets the plane? I suppose the government takes it and... auctions it? Scraps it? Probably impossible to register in the US?
 
Jim K said:
That was my question. Who gets the plane? I suppose the government takes it and... auctions it? Scraps it? Probably impossible to register in the US?
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Past similar cases, the plane is returned to the owner. Belenko's MiG-25 was returned, US airliners hijacked to Cuba were returned, etc. Not sure about Rust's rented C-172, Wikipedia says it was sold to Japan but doesn't say by who.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
Past similar cases, the plane is returned to the owner. Belenko's MiG-25 was returned, US airliners hijacked to Cuba were returned, etc. Not sure about Rust's rented C-172, Wikipedia says it was sold to Japan but doesn't say by who.

Ron Wanttaja
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Rust’s airplane ended up in a museum in Berlin.
9221D0E5-96F1-4A90-83BE-A4B850697FC2.jpeg
 
Daleandee said:
Does he get to stay? More importantly ... can he keep the plane? :D
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At one time, if memory serves, any Cuban who defected from there and was able to set foot on Florida soil was accepted and did not have to worry about being repatriated to Cuba. I never heard anything about that policy changing. :dunno:
 
Archer Jack said:
At one time, if memory serves, any Cuban who defected from there and was able to set foot on Florida soil was accepted and did not have to worry about being repatriated to Cuba. I never heard anything about that policy changing. :dunno:
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From what little I can ascertain from a quick search, most defectors are seen as traitors and not allowed to return. Don't know if that is fact or internet noise ...
 
Possum said:
Check out the restaurant prices in Key West. 30$ bucks for a taco and salsa and 50$ bucks for avocado toast??? He did the right thing..... keep flying for cheaper food
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I haven't visited Key West in many years. Now I have a good reason not to go again.

But I've never had better conch chowder or key lime pie.
 
Witmo said:
The AN-2 was probably so slow it was filtered out by the software and never displayed as an air target. Doppler radars have blind speeds and usually the radar is adjusted so that the blind speeds correspond with stuff that wouldn't be aircraft.
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I thought the aerostat in the Keys looked down for sea targets so something that slow would be picked up.
 
Pugs said:
The AEROSTAT balloon in R2916 is designed to do just that. Wonder if it was up?
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Probably mistook it for a large bird given the airspeed.
 
mcdewey said:
I thought the aerostat in the Keys looked down for sea targets so something that slow would be picked up.
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Correct. I worked with the USAF Colonel (and he was a PhD EE as well) who was heavily involved in its development and deployment. It was designed for both sea and air targets. They had a lot of issues at one point with drug cartel sneaking onto Big Pine Key and trying to cut it loose.
 
At 30 feet and being fairly slow, the clutter filter probably classified the target as a ship and the Eastern AD controller probably has those deselected. I would forever have problems with the system classifying semis on the interstate as a low slow flyer. That is probably why our displays had major highways as a display option though.
 
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