U.S. JETS WERE READY TO CHALLENGE MIGSTHE MIAMI HERALD
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| The fighters never took off because the Cubans
didn't breach an American air defense boundary, the Pentagon said. <Please see #1 below> The Pentagon also disclosed Thursday that it closely monitors Cuban military air traffic, and is prepared to launch jet interceptors if MiGs approach the United States. A military spokesman denied a congressman's assertion that the U.S. fighters' base requested permission to intercept the MiGs and was turned down. Instead, the American interceptors remained on the ground Saturday because the Cuban fighters turned back before reaching the boundary of the Air Defense Identification Zone. The zone is marked by the 24th parallel in the Florida Straits, halfway between Key West and Havana. <Please see #1 below> Still unclearWhat was not clear from the various accounts from Homestead Air Reserve Base to the Pentagon to the halls of Congress was whether American military radar controllers witnessed the MiGs' destruction of the two small Cessna planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue. <Please see #2 below> The downing of the two planes Saturday, which resulted in the deaths of four Cuban Americans, has triggered a new crisis between the United States and Cuba. The story of how close the U.S. fighters came to intercepting the Cuban jets broke into the open when Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., asserted at a congressional hearing Thursday that the air base was denied permission to challenge the MiGs. Burton, speaking at a hearing on the shootdown, said he had been told in a "disturbing" phone call from the base Wednesday that permission had been requested and denied. "Somebody needs to answer for that," he said. But Air Force Reserve Maj. Bobby D'Angelo, a base spokesman, rejected Burton's account: "I don't want to get into a pissing match with a congressman. That's not the way we do it." Even though the Air Force and Burton disagree on whether anyone requested permission to scramble fighters, they agree that U.S. defense radar picked up the Cuban MiGs and tracked them as they hunted the Cessnas. Officials said the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), based in Colorado Springs, Colo., began tracking the MiGs shortly after they took off to challenge the Cessnas. Homestead baase notifiedAs the Cuban aircraft, a MiG29 and a MiG23, flew north toward the American defense zone, NORAD controllers alerted the Florida Air National Guard's 125th fighter wing at Homestead. Homestead is one of the bases from which fighter jets are scrambled to identify unknown intruders that may threaten the American mainland. NORAD that day paid particular attention because the Cuban Air Force was unusually active. U.S. F-15A tactical fighters at Homestead were placed on high alert as the MiGs approached the 24th parallel. Pilots boarded the fighters and taxied out to the runway. But the order to take off never arrived because the Cuban jets turned south a substantial distance from the 24th parallel. <Please see #1 below>
At no point did anyone at homestead ask permission to intercept the MiGs, D'Angelo said, because that is not standard procedure. The Homestead interceptors merely respond to orders; they do not make requests. No one at the Pentagon or Homestead could say with any certainty if NORAD knew that the Cuban MiGs were about to attack the Cessnas. Chief Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon would only say: "The job of the NORAD planes is to protect our country from attack . . . We are not in the business of escorting civilian aircraft; we were not at this point escorting civilian aircraft." But even if the NORAD controllers had decided to scramble fighters to protect the Cessnas, they wouldn't have gotten there on time. The shootdown took place over the course of about seven minutes, and it would have taken the F-15s too long to get there. <Please see #3 below> "I think it's fair to say it would have been impossible for U.S. planes to get
from Homestead to the point where this vicious, illegal attack took place in time to
prevent it," Bacon said. |
1. The 24th parallel is not the "trigger line". The 24th parallel does not provide the reference for the intercept launch criteria. The "trigger line" is further south, approximately runs with the 12-mile Cuban territorial waters, and the south boundary of Cuba’s Air Defense Identification Zone. It is identified in Major Jeffrey Houlihan’s sworn court testimony (pages 482-484) and shown in the customs screen prints.
See also unanswered question 3-"The "miscommunication" that cancelled the "battlestations" alert at Homestead has never been explained." See also unanswered question 5-"U.S. interceptors were not deployed to deter MiGs in international waters, in contravention of standard operating procedure related to the "trigger line"."
Question: Was the "battlestations" alert cancelled, as indicated in Report of Inquiry prepared by Rodney P. Kelly, Brigadier General USAF, page 3, "During this sequence of events, the Homestead F-15s were directed off battle stations due to a communications error at Cheyenne Mountain" or, as stated in this article,"…the order to take off never arrived…"?
Furthermore, Brothers to the Rescue questions the assertion that that MiGs did not cross the 24th parallel. Please refer to unanswered question 7.
2. Radars in Cuba and in the U.S. were on alert. See unanswered question 4-"Response to a "911" call: "…we’re handling it, don’t worry"."
During a documented, uninterrupted 53 minute chase by Cuban MiGs, at the end of which at least one MiG was three minutes from the U.S. shore, the U.S. saw the events unfold on its radars and heard them on its monitors. Nevertheless, they remained motionless and in absolute silence, as if no response was required.
3. Completely false. Please refer to unanswered questions-Background Information-Chronology of Events Related to the Murder and *Reaction Time of US Interceptors and to unanswered question 3.
Radar sighting of MiGs take off. 3:00 PM
"911" call from Major Jeffrey Houlihan 3:16 PM
First aircraft is shot down 3:21 PM
Second aircraft is shot down 3:28 PM
Chase by the Cuban MiGs of the
suspended plane that survived is 3:53 PM
*The reaction time for an interceptor from Key West to reach the area is, if on "battlestations" alert: less than 5 minutes and, not on "battlestations" alert: less than 11 minutes.