Orestes Lorenzo Perez, a MiG-23 pilot, circled the Naval Air Station Key West three times on March 20, 1991, waggling the wings of his Flogger to indicate friendly intentions in the hopes that no one would try to down the Soviet-built fighter jet.
In an effort to prevent someone from shooting down the Soviet-built fighter jet, MiG-23 pilot Orestes Lorenzo Perez made three circles around the Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West on March 20, 1991, while waggling the wings of his Flogger (the NATO reporting name for the MiG-23) to signal friendly intentions.
Perez said that the Cuban government had loaned him the aircraft. He claimed not to understand a single word of English. But he was escaping Cuba in search of freedom. Perez, a former pilot for the Cuban Air Force, has drawn a lot of attention since his escape and heroic flight back to Cuba to save his family, as was detailed in a lengthy article published in The Ledger. In 1994, he even published a book detailing his journey.
His risky rescue effort was dubbed a suicide mission by his pals. He admitted that he was putting his life, as well as the lives of his wife and two sons, in danger, but insisted that it was worthwhile because they were following their dreams.
Perez received a scholarship to attend flight school in the Soviet Union while serving in the Cuban Air Force. There, he learnt to pilot a MiG-21 and a small Czechoslovakian Aero L-29 Delfin two-seater jet trainer. He was a member of the Cuban forces dispatched to assist the Marxist government in Angola.
He made a second deployment to the Soviet Union before returning to Cuba with his family, where he was assigned to Santa Clara Air Base, roughly 165 miles east of Havana. What he discovered was a country steeped in propaganda and so repressed by the government that his family understood he should try to flee.
Hence, on March 20, 1991, Perez bid his wife Victoria farewell while pledging to return for her and their two sons. She had to act as though she was unaware of Perez’s escape strategy. She prayed for her husband’s safe passage to the US and his eventual release.
On that particular day, Perez flew the MiG-23 from Cuba to Key West as part of a training mission. Speaking Spanish to the pilot who met him on the ground, he said that he was looking for political asylum when he finally made it to the ground without being picked up by American radar.
When the pilot understood, according to Perez, they shook hands, and he wished them a warm welcome to the country. He was flown to Washington, DC, right away for a briefing and to receive paperwork. After receiving political asylum, he began working to have his family moved from Cuba.
Despite receiving American visas for his wife and two sons, the Cuban government forbade them from departing the country. Perez said that they were under government surveillance. He claimed that during the 21 months that Perez campaigned for their release across the country, his family was constantly under observation.
In an address to the Cuban government, then-President George H. W. Bush asked Fidel Castro to permit Perez’s family to leave. Castro objected, so Perez had to come up with a better strategy. They could only be saved by taking off again in an airplane.
Perez found out that a 1961 Cessna 310 was for sale through the Valladares Foundation, a rights organization started by a political prisoner from Cuba. The organization agreed to pay $30,000 to buy it for his rescue attempt, with assistance from a donation.
He took flying lessons and got his pilot’s license in Virginia, but prior to his attempt at rescue, he had limited experience flying the Cessna. With a copilot, Perez had only successfully landed the little plane once. But Perez took off from the Florida Keys at precisely 5:07 p.m. on December 19, 1992, flying low across the ocean. A note was provided to his wife instructing her to meet him 165 kilometers away from her house in Havana.
Perez wasn’t sure if she and the boys would be there or if he would get there before the Cuban government noticed him, but he had to try. Perez came over cliffs on the Cuban coastline while flying at less than 100 feet above the ocean and found his wife and sons dressed as he had instructed them to—in bright orange T-shirts.
In order to quickly get his family inside the pickup truck, Perez landed the Cessna close to it, turned the aircraft around, and then took off. He was relieved when he touched down in Marathon less than two hours later. Only a few military pilots from Cuba during the Cold War defected to the US, including Perez. Perez and his family were naturalized as Americans. Shortly after Perez was granted political asylum, the MiG-23 was sent back to Cuba, while the Cessna was destroyed by a hurricane.
Photo by: U.S. Navy