On Eve of Raul Castro Indictment, Archive Posts Declassified FAA Documents on Events Leading to Shootdown of Cuban Exile Planes FAA Emails Foresaw “Worst Case Scenario”“One of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes”
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Starting a year before the shootdown, the Cuban government filed multiple protests on repeated violations of its airspace by BTTR aircraft overflying populated zones and dropping thousands of leaflets and other materials calling for popular insurrection against the government. The FAA opened a protracted investigation, met with BTTR president Jose Basulto, and warned him multiple times not to continue his “taunting” provocations. The agency took steps to suspend his pilot’s license but allowed him to keep flying, even as he repeatedly filed false flight plans. High-level U.S. officials, including White House Cuba point man Richard Nuccio, State Department undersecretary Peter Tarnoff, and Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña repeatedly expressed their concerns to the FAA that BTTR flights should be permanently grounded and repeatedly warned that Cuba’s redlines to protect its security should be taken seriously. Their efforts to press the FAA to clip Basulto’s wings failed. Only after the shootdown did the FAA issue a concrete “cease and desist” order against Basulto for what it called “careless or reckless” operations that “endanger the lives or property of others.”
