Holding a model of a MiG jet in one hand and a Cessna model that it dwarfed in the other, Charles Leonard, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator and Air Force fighter pilot, described the kills.
``At no time were these aircraft in Cuban territorial airspace,'' said Leonard, now an aviation safety consultant who was hired to investigate the shootdown by the families of the victims.
The families of fliers Mario de la Peña, 24; Carlos Costa, 29; and Armando Alejandre, 45, are using a 1996 federal law that lets victims of terrorist nations seek damages in U.S. court. The case is the first of its kind to go to trial, and the families are seeking $79 million in damages from Cuban funds seized by the United States.
Cuban MiGs shot down the planes Feb. 24, 1996, as the Americans patrolled the Florida Straits, looking for refugees trying to escape Cuba in rafts and small boats. A fourth man killed -- Pablo Morales -- was not a U.S. citizen and is not covered under the law.
``I believe the shootdown of the two Cessnas was a callous, premeditated act,'' Leonard said. ``There were no surprises these aircraft were coming. The Cubans . . . were aware of these flights.''
He said the Cuban military and air traffic controllers never warned the Brothers to the Rescue planes or tried to divert them from their southbound flight path, as required by international law.
Family members cried and looked down as Leonard described how the MiGs chased down the smaller, slower civilian planes and blasted them out of the sky. Mumbled expletives were heard in the courtroom when he detailed how Cuban air traffic controllers congratulated the fighter pilots on their kills.
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald