What really happened that day, when two civilian aircraft disappeared over the Straits of Florida?

By Gates L. Scott

Activism comes with a price: A self-sacrificing effort often synonymous with protest or dissent. In the early 1990’s, an activist named Jose Basulto, took his stand against human suffering and used his airplane as a platform. As Basulto would discover, a movement of revolution can have tragic consequences. But at what price will someone attempt to bring social and political change against an adversary of monumental proportion?

“They harassed our Air Force, violated our airspace, dropped leaflets on our capital and engaged in other constant acts of provocation,” said Fidel Castro in an interview conducted by Reginald Black, chairman of Time, Inc., along with Miami Bureau Chief Cathy Booth and Joelle Attinger, Time’s chief of correspondents. “On July 13, they dropped leaflets on Havana…In fact people watched from Malecon as MiGs made warning passes against their planes. People were criticizing the Cuban Air Force. We reported each and every violation to the United States in a diplomatic process. We warned U.S. officials time and again. We had been patient, but there are limits,” Castro continued, in his justification for shooting down two American civilian aircraft on the afternoon of February 26, 1996.

It was July 21, 1991 when Alfredo Sanchez took off from the Tamiami Airport in his Cessna 310 with four passengers onboard. Sanchez was flying as a volunteer pilot for Brothers to the Rescue, a pro-democracy, humanitarian organization whose mission is to promote and support efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from dictatorship through the use of active non-violence. On this, his second of hundreds of rescue missions in the 90-mile stretch of the Straits of Florida, Sanchez was accompanied by three other Cessna aircraft. The organization has orchestrated hundreds of missions rescuing thousands of Cuban refugees as they flee communist rule on homemade, dilapidated rafts in a stretch of sea that some call “black” due to the hardship of its crossing to the Florida coast. In the years from 1990 through 1996, over 25,000 Cuban refugees lost their lives trying to make the crossing. These four aircraft were serving as “spotters” that day, enabling the search-and-rescue of rafters in need of support.

Alfredo and his passengers left Tamiami at 8 a.m. and proceeded to the eastern end of their search grid near Cal Say at about 500 feet AGL. It wasn’t standard practice in these early flights for the group to contact Havana Center since they always stayed well outside the 12-mile Cuban territorial boundary. The four aircraft only maintained radio contact with one another. After some searching, Sanchez’s starboard passenger spotted a raft which looked to have seven, fragile people aboard. The raft was in a dangerous situation and needed immediate attention. Standard procedure for the organization was to make a pass at the raft, at 500 feet AGL, drop provisions and a note, climb to 1,500 feet and circle, never losing site of the raft. A call would then be made to base in Miami via cellular radios, and then to the U.S. Coast Guard for support. The base operator that day was Jose Basulto, the organization’s founder.

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