Cuban Migrant Flies Plane To Florida Airport

This is an interesting story…

A Cuban migrant flew a Soviet-era crop duster in  Florida to escape the Communist regime in Cuba.

Ruben Martinez, 29, landed at an airport in the Everglades on Friday and is now in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol officers.

The move by Martinez raises concerns about how could a Soviet era airplane easily infiltrate the state of Florida.

DEVELOPING: A Cuban migrant who took off from the island in a single-engine aircraft has landed in the Everglades. https://t.co/NVLYEj59Ab

— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) October 21, 2022

Migrant lands at airport in Everglades flying plane from Cuba
https://t.co/FaQ2Sqtx9q
(Via WSVN)

— Raquel Calero (@Raquel_Calero) October 21, 2022

The New York Post got the scoop too:

29-year-old Cuban pilot flew a Soviet-era biplane to freedom in Florida Friday — and promptly took a selfie when he landed.

Miami International Airport officials said the single-engine Antonov An-2 plane touched down at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport around 11:30 a.m., NBC 6 reported.

The pilot had radioed that he was running low on fuel before landing on the strip near Tamiami Trail in the middle of the Florida Everglades, according to 7 News Miami.

His first act on American soil was to take a selfie with the plane in the background.

Family members identified the pilot as Ruben Martinez, according to NBC 6.

Martinez said he’d flown from Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, officials said.

Friends told NBC 6 that he used the plane for work, mainly for crop dusting.

THE EVERGLADES, FLA. (WSVN) – A Cuban migrant who took off from the island in a single-engine aircraft has landed in the Everglades. The migrant… https://t.co/JhdRI9vBqW

— The Pug (@thepugnews) October 21, 2022

WSVN had more details to add:

A Cuban migrant who took off from the island in a single-engine aircraft has landed in the Everglades.

The pilot radioed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, located in the Big Cypress National Preserve, and said he was low on fuel before he landed there, at around 11:30 a.m., Friday.

Brian Cone was fishing off of Islamorada when he saw the plane and took video of it.

The pilot, who has been identified as a 29-year-old Cuban man, left from Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, in an Antonov AN-2 Soviet-era crop duster. He flew a distance of about 270 miles before landing at the airport.

The migrant was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and is now in their custody.

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The flight is part of a surge of migrant landings in South Florida that have been happening for months.

Authorities said this type of attempted arrival is unusual, but it’s not unprecedented.

7News has reported on various Cubans who have escaped the country by plane dating back to the early 1990s.

DEVELOPING: A Cuban migrant who took off from the island in a single-engine aircraft has landed in the Everglades. https://t.co/NVLYEj59Ab

— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) October 21, 2022

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