(31 Jul 1996) English/Nat
The head of a Cuban American Organisation says US military authorities knew their American-based planes were in danger before Cuban MiG jets shot them down in February.
Two Florida Congressmen are calling for a Congressional investigation.
Jose Basulto of the anti-Castro brothers to the Rescue group says he never expected the U-S planes to save the pilots, but he did expect a warning call.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
U-S officials, fully aware of the potentially lethal situation and Brothers to the Rescue flight plan for that day, did not attempt to advise Brothers to the Rescue of the imminent danger.
SUPER CAPTION: Jose Basulto, Brothers to the Rescue pilot
The head of the organisation was in a third plane that was not shot down during the February 24th incident.
Basulto said he based his assertions on testimony from a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing into whether his pilot's licence should be suspended for flying into Cuban airspace that day.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
At 3.15 P-M, a U-S Customs radar specialist at the March Air Force base in California made the equivalent of a 911 call to Tyndall Air Force base in Florida. He was told: we are handling it. Don't worry.
SUPER CAPTION: Jose Basulto, Brothers to the Rescue pilot
Basulto denounced that no interceptor aircraft were launched.
Republican congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart called for a Congressional investigation on the matter.
And Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen insisted on the danger Castro's regime posed to American national security.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
The new evidence reveals that an apparent lack of determination by our own government to protect the pilots of Brothers to the Rescue who flew that day to aid the Cuban refugees who are desperately seeking freedom in various islands around the Caribbean. Our government must recognise that Castro regime remains a vital threat to our national security.
SUPER CAPTION: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, U-S Congresswoman
Four members of the Miami-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue were killed when two planes were shot down by Cuban MiGs in the Florida Straits last February.
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