Florida Man Friday
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Well, sorta Florida Man:
Cuba Man goes to Florida. Then back to Cuba. Then back to Florida.
The Cuban Air Force pilot that defected to the US with his MiG-23. He then borrowed a Cessna 310, flew back to Cuba and brought his family to America
On Mar. 20, 1991 MiG-23 pilot Orestes Lorenzo Perez circled the Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West three times, waggling the wings of his Flogger (the NATO reporting name for the MiG-23) to signal friendly intentions, hoping that no one would shoot down the Soviet-built fighter jet.
Perez said he borrowed the aircraft from the Cuban government.
He didn’t know a single word in English, he said. But he was escaping Cuba for freedom.
So, on Mar. 20, 1991, Perez said goodbye to his wife, Victoria, promising to return for her and their two sons. She had to pretend that she knew nothing of Perez’s escape plan.
She prayed that her husband would make it to the US and to freedom.
During a training mission that day, Perez flew the MiG-23 from Cuba to Key West. When he finally landed undetected by American radar, speaking in Spanish, he told the pilot who met him on the ground that he was seeking political asylum.
Through a human rights organization founded by a Cuban political prisoner, called the Valladares Foundation, Perez learned that a 1961 Cessna 310 was for sale. With help from a donation the foundation agreed to pay the $30,000 to purchase it for his rescue attempt.
Although he took flying lessons and received his pilot license in Virginia, he had very little experience flying the Cessna before his rescue attempt. Perez had only landed the small plane once, with a co-pilot.
But at exactly 5:07 p.m. on Dec. 19, 1992, Perez left from the Florida Keys, flying low across the ocean. His wife was given a note to meet him at a location about 165 miles from her home in Havana.
Perez didn’t know whether she would be there with the boys, or if he would make it to the spot before the Cuban government saw him, but he had to try.
Flying less than 100 feet above the ocean, Perez came over cliffs on the Cuban coastline and saw his wife and sons wearing bright orange T-shirts, just as he had asked them to do.
Perez landed the Cessna about 10 yards from a pickup truck, turned the plane around, hurried his family inside and flew away.
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Although he took flying lessons and received his pilot license in Virginia, he had very little experience flying the Cessna before his rescue attempt.
It was the owner of the flight school (a 1946 West Point graduate) where I worked that taught him how to fly the Cessna 310. He told me this story.
Afterward, he was visited by men in black suits, he knew nothing about the flight to Cuba. But he had a pretty good idea what might be going on.
