BY ANTHONY F KIRKPATRICK, M.D., PH.D. (Special for Granma International)
PRIVATE U.S. aircraft can LEGALLY and SAFELY fly to Cuba without provoking an international confrontation. I did so on Thanksgiving Day with my plane loaded with medical donations from the United States. It was exhilarating to be the first
U.S. pilot in over 40 years to carry out such a mission.
Prior to the flight, however, I encountered enormous resistance from both the U.S. and Cuban governments. My first application to the U.S. Department of Commerce to use my private aircraft to deliver humanitarian supplies to Cuba was rejected. Then I borrowed a strategy from the film The Godfather—I made the Commerce Department an offer that they could not refuse. First, I solicited over $1 million in medicines and surgical supplies from U.S. medical companies for donation to Cuba. Second, I asked one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington for private pilots, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, to contact the Commerce Department on my behalf. The Association served as my watchdog during the application process. On August 11, 2000, I received a license from Commerce allowing me 20 round trip flights to Cuba.
Much of the resistance that I encountered from the Cuban Government was based on the fear that my flights would open a Pandora’s box. Such an opening into Cuba’s airspace for private aircraft might lead to acts of politically motivated aggression against the island nation, unlawful acts which might be supported by the U.S. government. Cuba’s fear is not unreasonable given the events that led to the shoot-down of two small planes by Cuba in 1996.
The shoot-down was painstakingly investigated by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization. The UN investigation found that Cuba had failed to employ means, such as more effective radio communication, to avoid the shoot-down. But what has not been widely publicized from the findings of the UN investigation is how the U.S. failed to control a group of private pilots. These pilots aggressively used their aircraft as tools to try to destabilize the Cuban Government; and in such a manner as to jeopardize the safety of the airspace legally controlled by Cuba. The UN report makes it clear that this failure to "control" the private pilots, and to enforce Cuba’s rules and regulations related to flights of U.S. registered aircraft, was an obligation broken by United States both under international and U.S. law.
According to the 250-page UN report, the leader of a group called "Brothers to the Rescue," Jose Basulto had a record of violating Cuba’s territorial airspace and of dropping objects over the island nation. On July 11, 1995, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) met with Basulto and warned him that if he violated Cuba’s territorial airspace, he would suffer "serious consequences" and that any violations would be "vigorously investigated."
Just two days later, Basulto’s plane accompanied a 13-boat flotilla to mark the anniversary of an encounter that happened one year earlier, when a Cuban gunboat intercepted a stolen tugboat in Cuban territorial waters. The tugboat had been commandeered by a group of Cubans fleeing the island. The Cuban Government has maintained that the tugboat was old and dilapidated and that it sank when a Cuban patrol boat accidentally bumped it.
When the flotilla carrying mostly anti-Castroites reached Cuban territorial waters where the tugboat had sunk, the UN report stated that Basulto ignored the FAA’s orders. He was reported on Miami television "roaring over Havana at rooftop level," endangering the lives of Cuban citizens as well as that of the television journalist and copilot he had on board. He was also reported dropping propaganda leaflets and religious medals from his plane, which could have caused serious injury to the people below. A Cuban fighter plane seen in the area heightened the danger. Even though Basulto was flying his plane in Cuba’s airspace unlawfully at rooftop level in downtown Havana in a manner later described by the FAA as "careless or reckless," the Cuban military restrained itself from shooting his plane down. Basulto claimed that he flew over downtown Havana that day to create a diversionary maneuver for the flotilla which was being intercepted by a Cuban gunboat in Cuban territorial waters.
The Miami Herald reported that the lead boat for the flotilla continued south toward Havana even though an officer on a Cuban gunboat took out a bullhorn and warned, in Spanish, "You have entered Cuban territorial waters. You have violated Cuban territorial waters." It wasn’t until a gunboat bumped the boat and it began to take on water that the flotilla turned around. Again, the Cubans exercised restraint and kept their weapons covered on the gunboat.
Basulto told the Miami Herald, "We are proud of what we did." And he declared to a television audience his intention to violate U.S. law and destabilize the Cuban Government. He told the NBC reporter on his plane, "This is an act of civil disobedience. We realize what we are doing and all we are doing is signaling out to the people of Cuba that civil disobedience is possible."
Unfortunately, the FAA failed to carry out its warning to vigorously investigate Basulto’s violation. For example, it delayed the investigation for over a month while it carried out an English translation of Cuba’s documentation of the incident. The FAA never contacted the journalist on board Basulto’s plane who was an eyewitness to the violation. There was sufficient evidence for the FAA to restrain Basulto long before the shoot-down seven months later. We may never know if this tragic shoot-down might have been averted if the FAA had exercised its authority to immediately revoke his pilot’s license or seize his aircraft.
Shortly after the July 13 incident, Cuba wrote a letter to the FAA Administrator stating "I beg you" to take action to prevent a reoccurrence. The next day, Cuba wasted no time making it clear through statements to U.S. television and newspapers its intention to protect its sovereignty and the public’s safety, even if it meant sinking ships and shooting down aircraft. Cuba publicly declared, "Any ship from abroad that forcibly invades our sovereign waters will be sunk and any aircraft downed."
Despite Cuba’s clear threat of a shoot-down, the Brothers continued their efforts to destabilize the Cuban Government by flying into airspace controlled by Cuba and dropping political leaflets. Basulto claims these flights were outside Cuba’s 12-mile territorial limit, and that a strong northerly wind carried the leaflets to Cuba.
The UN report states that Cuba began to lose confidence that the U.S.Government would uphold international law as well as its own regulations and curb what Cuba called "aggressive and terrorist" activities.
The situation became critical in February, 1996. The dissident group Concilio Cubano was protesting against the Cuban government. Several weeks before the shoot-down, the Miami Herald reported thatBasulto passed an envelope containing $2,000 in cash to a Concilio leader at a press conference in Miami. Both Havana and Washington were on heightened alert, anticipating that the Brothers might engage in political over flights during the protests by Concilio dissidents in Havana.
On that ill-fated day, the pilots filed a VFR flight plan with the FAA and aviation authorities in Havana and then deviated from it. During their flight toward Cuba, Havana asked one of the pilots over the radio for their flight plan and received a misleading response: "Well that information is in our flight plan." The UN report noted that international civil aviation law requires that pilots report significant changes to a flight plan "as soon as practicable" to air traffic controllers.
Basulto and two other Brothers to the Rescue planes entered into an airspace over international waters that was legally controlled by Cuba.It was designated as a danger zone just south of the 24th parallel on aviation charts. On this particular day, however, this danger zone was published as being extra dangerous. The pilot filing the flight plan indicated to the FAA in Miami that he was aware of NOTAMs warning pilots that this airspace was especially dangerous because it was "activated," possibly with Cuban military aircraft. In addition, Havana sent Basulto a radio message: "Sir, we inform you that the area north of Havana is activated. You are taking a risk by flying south of 24." Basulto quickly responded, "We know we are in danger each time we fly into the area south of 24, but we are ready to do so as free Cubans."
All three aircraft were equipped with sophisticated GPS navigational systems to prevent accidental incursions into restricted airspace. Basulto told the UN investigators that he did not violate Cuba’s territorial airspace on February 24, but both U.S. and Cuban radar records obtained by the UN investigators showed that he entered Cuba’s territorial airspace. On May 16, 1996, the FAA issued an Order stating that Basulto had unlawfully violated Cuba’s territorial airspace. Basulto managed to evade a shoot-down by the Cuban military aircraft but the other two aircraft were not as fortunate.
One wonders what would happen if the table was turned? What if a known enemy from abroad was to enter U.S. airspace in a small private plane over Washington DC without authorization? Such information is apparently top secret. However, according to several "administrative officials" reporting in The Washington Post, such an intruder is likely to be shot down quickly over water before it enters the U.S. because shooting down the plane over a populated area would create "significant risks to large numbers of innocent bystanders." The report further notes, "Any decision to shoot at an unidentified aircraft might have to be made in seconds."
Rather than point the finger at the Brothers or the FAA for the shoot-down, the U.S. called on the United Nations to condemn Cuba. The U.S. points to a provision cited in the UN report called "Article 3: Amendment to the Convention on International Civil Aviation." The provision calls for countries to refrain from using weapons against civil aircraft. That same provision was used to condemn the U.S. in 1988 for shooting down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 passengers.
But the U.S. itself refuses to ratify the provision, despite an "urgent" plea from the United Nations. Why? The provision would make it tougher for the U.S. to shoot down private as well as commercial aircraft, and it would require the U.S. to "take appropriate measures" to prevent private pilots from using their aircraft to carrying out acts of aggression against other nations. Cuba ratified the provision on September 28, 1998.
A few months ago, Washington authorized the use of $58 million in frozen Cuban funds to compensate some of the relatives of members of the Brothers to the Rescue team. The families declared they would use a portion of the millions to continue the fight against Fidel Castro.
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to direct their anger and millions against the FAA? After all, this was the U.S. agency that failed to stop Basulto by not enforcing its own regulations.
Now, more than five years later, Basulto’s violation of Cuban airspace has become a centerpiece for the defense of an accused Cuban spy. According to the Miami Herald, defense attorney Paul McKenna says his client, Gerardo Hernández, is a scapegoat in the shoot down and that Basulto is really to blame. Of the five accused spies on trial, Hernández faces the most serious charge: conspiracy to commit murder in the shoot-down, which could carry a life sentence.
Why did I fly over $1 million in medical donations to Cuba? Like the aviation incident, the U.S. is two-faced about health care as well.
My research published in a leading medical journal, The Lancet, shows that about fifty percent of the world’s most important medicines are blocked from reaching the Cuban people because of the U.S. embargo.
Even though the Organization of American States wrote a letter to the U.S. Government in February 1996 calling the medical blockade a direct violation of international law, the U.S. refuses to lift the blockade.
Our country is saying to the world, "Do as I say—not as I do." We are emerging as a new version of The Ugly American for the 21st century.
Anthony F. Kirkpatrick, MD, Ph.D., is a physician and pilot in Tampa, Florida.
humanitarian supplies to Cuba was rejected. Then I borrowed a strategy from the film The Godfather—I made the Commerce Department an offer that they could not refuse. First, I solicited over $1 million in medicines and surgical supplies from U.S. medical companies for donation to Cuba. Second, I asked one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington for private pilots, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, to contact the Commerce Department on my behalf. The Association served as my watchdog during the application process. On August 11, 2000, I received a license from Commerce allowing me 20 round trip flights to Cuba.
to Cuba? Like the aviation incident, the U.S. is two-faced about health care as well.