MIAMI, United States. — An American fisherman captured on camera last Friday the Antonov-2 plane in which the pilot Rubén Martínez Machado escaped from Cuba while flying over the Florida Straits.
The video was shared on Instagram by Brian Cone, who initially thought it was a smuggling operation.
“A very strange plane flying by us this morning! I’m told it’s a Russian An-2. Which could mean he is a smuggler,” the fisherman wrote on the social network.
At the time of the recording, Cone was on Crocker Reef, located a few miles from Islamorada.
The video was taken around 10:45 am, about 45 minutes before the plane landed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, located off the Tamiami Trail in the middle of the Everglades.
The plane captured by Cone was flying at a very low altitude, in what is presumed to have been a maneuver by the pilot to escape radar control.
Rubén Martínez Machado, 29, escaped from Cuba in the An-2 plane after taking off from an aerodrome in the province of Sancti Spíritus. Shortly after landing in Florida, the pilot was questioned by agents from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The Institute of Civil Aeronautics of Cuba (IACC) pointed out this Saturday that the departure of the young man from Cuba aboard the plane constitutes an act of “air piracy” in violation of international conventions.
The IACC confirmed that the aircraft, registration CU A1885, belonged to the Empresa Nacional de Servicios Aéreos (ENSA).
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