MIAMI, United States. — The Cuban regime reacted this Saturday to the departure from the Island of the pilot Rubén Martínez Machado, who escaped to Florida in an Antonov An-2 light aircraft.
A statement from the Institute of Civil Aeronautics of Cuba (IACC) released by official media points out that the 30-year-old young man left the country shortly after carrying out agricultural fumigation work and described the act as violating aviation regulations.
The IACC confirmed that the aircraft, registration CU A1885, belonged to the Empresa Nacional de Servicios Aéreos (ENSA), and that it took off from a branch of that entity located in the province of Sancti Spíritus bound for the “El Cedro” runway to fumigate crops.
“After finishing its second application flight, the aircraft, piloted by the captain on board Rubén Martínez Machado, did not return to the runway,” the note states.
The statement adds that Rubén Martínez Machado is a native of Santa Clara and had License 3060, valid until October 30, 2022.
The IACC specified that the Cuban civil aviation authorities have not received official notification from the US authorities about the arrival of the pilot in Florida, announced yesterday by different media outlets.
In that sense, the island’s authorities described the event as an act of “air piracy.”
“Air piracy acts constitute crimes defined in various international conventions, ratified by Cuba and the United States. This fact represents a violation of Cuban airspace, operational safety and aeronautical regulations, in correspondence with the Annexes of the Convention on International Civil Aviation”, known as the Chicago Convention.
The text concludes that “the authorities of the Cuban civil aeronautics continue to investigate the details of the event based on the available information.”
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