Cuban Pilot Flies Airliner to Miami, Asks Asylum : Defection: Cubana flight bound for Bahamas is diverted after crew members are locked out of cockpit. Sixteen passengers were non-Cuban tourists.

A Cuban commercial-airline pilot locked his fellow crew members out of the cockpit Sunday and diverted a Bahamian-bound plane to Miami, where he asked for political asylum.

“There was no violence used in this diversion,” FBI spokesman Paul Miller said. “This was a diversion by the pilot, who was alone in the cockpit. The pilot is in custody. He has asked for asylum. No one else asked for asylum.”

The pilot will be turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, officials said. It was not clear whether charges would be filed. A message left at the U.S. attorney’s office was not returned.

Miller said the Cubana flight left Cuba about 12:30 p.m. PDT. It landed about 3:15 p.m. at Miami International Airport, making it the latest in a string of Cuban-owned military and commercial aircraft that have fled to Florida.

The 16 passengers aboard the plane were five U.S. citizens, five Bahamians, two Spaniards, two Italians, a Colombian and a Canadian, federal officials said. They were described as vacationers on their way from Havana to Nassau, Bahamas. Also aboard were the pilot and six crew members, officials said.

The tourists collected their baggage Sunday night and made other arrangements to fly to Nassau. Miller said he believed that the airline would send another Cuban pilot to Miami to fly the plane and crew back.

Federal agents identified the pilot as Basilio Garcia-Breto.

“The co-pilot said the pilot had asked him to go get him something to drink, and when he did the pilot locked the door from the inside,” said Guido Pietroni, a 24-year-old passenger from Genova, Italy.

“The co-pilot was trying to open the cockpit door with a screwdriver,” Pietroni said.

The airplane, a Soviet-made AN-25 RV, is a twin-engine turboprop craft that can hold up to 30 passengers, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

INS spokesman Lemar Wooley said: “The only one the INS is going to be involved with is the pilot himself, who has indicated he wants to stay. The rest of the crew apparently wants to fly the plane back. The tourists have indicated they want to continue on their vacation to the Bahamas.”

Officials in Havana had no immediate comment on Sunday’s incident. In the past, Cuban authorities have commented very briefly on such incidents, generally condemning the defectors as traitors.

But Sunday’s incident could be something of an embarrassment to Cuba, which is seeking to build up a tourist industry to earn it much-needed hard currency. More than 600,000 foreigners visited the island last year, and authorities are hoping to boost that number by nearly a third this year.