(snip)
: : The Cuban response was the standard in such cases; the intruder was politely but firmly escorted out of Cuban airspace; and the F-16s rendezvoused with the plane to make sure he didn't do anything even stupider and more illegal than he'd already done.: : It was especially stupid in this case; given that the US has dropped bioweapons on Cuba 26 times in the last 40 years, it would have been entirely understandable if they had decided to shoot him down rather than expose the citizens of Havana to attack.
(snip)
: : Thank God that not everyone in the US is a gung-ho armchair warrior like you...
: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$Just between me and you ole chum, I suspect that there's more to this episode that their telling us.
Frenchy starts off with a conspiracy theory...
: The facts are that the Cuban air defenses knew he was coming because the last time anything like this happened the Cubans blasted two defenceless private aircraft into oblivion while they were still off-shore.
The facts are;
firstly - that they said he flew in under the Cuban radar; entirely possible; a small plane flying low can sneak in like that.
secondly - there haven't been any biowarfare attacks on Cuba since about 199596. When the two planes were shot down in 1994, the Cubans were under regular covert attack by the US; thus their extreme reaction to the intrusion is somewhat understandable. There haven't been any attacks recorded in the last 4 years or so, so they probably figured the intruder was just a lone fanatic, as he was.
You can tell that the USCS were probably as relieved as anyone that the Cubans didn't exercise their legal right to shoot the intruder down; as their spokesman said;
"Suffice to say this is a very lucky man to be alive right now"
: This guy managed to waltz into Havana.
It's only a 90 mile flight; hardly a massive run.
:And the chances are slim that he didn't in fact know that what he was doing was dangerous because he probably knew about the last shoot-down involving the Cuban nationals.
: Got any theories?
Yeah. He's a loony and wanted to cause trouble between the US and Cuba. It's the simplest theory that explains the observed facts.
(snip)
: It was a polite way of one nation saying to another, 'Look, bub, you wanna play games, fine, take a gander at this...'.
: Of course I could be totally wrong.
I think you're totally wrong. It was just one crazy deciding he had a personal grudge against socialism who broke most of the air safety laws in his effort to cause trouble. He may not be charged following his act of extreme stupidity and irresponsibility, but he should certainly lose his pilot's licence for that little stunt.
And, as they said, he's damn lucky the Cubans didn't exercise their legal rights under international law.
Farinata.
None.
