THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602250094
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: MIAMI LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Cuban MiG fighters streaking over the Straits of Florida on Saturday shot down two single-engine planes belonging to a Cuban exile group, U.S. officials said.
A Navy guided-missile frigate steamed close to Cuban waters Saturday night, and President Clinton dispatched Air Force F-15s to protect search-and-rescue operations.
Four people on board the Brothers to the Rescue planes were missing and presumed dead. Coast Guard and Navy planes and helicopters searched into the night, but found only oil slicks.
U.S. officials said the planes apparently were shot down over international waters but in an area under the jurisdiction of Cuban air traffic controllers.
A third plane in the group returned safely to South Florida. Aboard that plane was Jose Basulto, who created Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue in 1991. U.S. officials questioned him at an undisclosed location Saturday night.
Spokesmen for the Brothers said the downed planes were looking for wayward Cuban rafters and never violated Cuban airspace; U.S. officials said they were not certain of that.
``At no time did they veer into Cuban airspace,'' said Guillermo Lares, a Brothers pilot. ``It was a search-and rescue mission. We are asking the exile community to pray for our pilots.''
But a Pentagon official told The Associated Press that early indications suggested the planes may have been heading to Cuba to pick up people and fly them out of the country.
The Cuban exile group has specialized in humanitarian missions but recently turned provocative with two overflights of Havana since July. Each time, they dropped leaflets over Havana urging peaceful protest to the communist regime of President Fidel Castro.
Castro warned that any aircraft violating Cuban airspace risked being destroyed.
Clinton, addressing the nation Saturday night, said he demanded an explanation of the incident from Cuban officials. ``I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,'' he said.
Top administration policymakers from the National Security Council, State Department and other agencies were to meet this morning to discuss the matter.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the planes, Cessna 337 Skymasters, had taken off from Florida and filed flight plans stating their destination was the Bahamas.
He said U.S. officials had been unaware of any plans that Cuba was the real destination of the planes.
``They clearly had detoured'' from their flight plan ``if they were in this vicinity,'' McCurry said. ``We would not have accepted flight plans indicating Cuba as a destination.''
The search area was in international seas, eight miles north of the 12 miles of water that Cuba claims as its own, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David French. The first Coast Guard jet on the scene reported seeing two oil slicks in the area.
The Coast Guard was using a C-130 cargo plane, a helicopter and two cutters from Key West, about 90 miles north of Cuba, in the search. Two Navy ships also were in the area, and military officials confirmed late Saturday that the guided-missile frigate John L. Hall, based in Pascagoula, Miss., had been sent to offer support for the search and rescue operation.
There was no immediate statement from Cuban officials in Havana or at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Cuban citizens with access to satellite television services first learned about the incident from American news programs.
A coalition of peaceful dissident organizations was scheduled to have a conference in Havana on Saturday, but it was postponed following the reported arrests of 50 members of human rights groups. Opposition leaders in Cuba said those detained were held up to 12 hours and then released.
The State Department has condemned the arrests.
Jorge Mas Canosa, head of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation, which has been most vocal about the arrests, condemned Saturday's attack.
``For two war planes from the Castro government to shoot down two unarmed civilian planes with American flags on a humanitarian mission should be considered an act of war against the United States,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Cuban patrol boat arrives to its base in Jaimanitas, just outside
Havana, Cuba, after looking for signs of wreckage or survivors of
two small aircraft reportedly shot down by Cuban government fighter
planes. The aircraft belonged to a Cuban exile group.
Photo
CANADIAN PRESS/Via AP
Cuban border patrol officers leave a patrol boat at Jaimanitas,
after checking on the two small aircraft Sunday.
KEYWORDS: CUBA by CNB