Pilot From U.S. Litters Havana With Anti-Castro Handbills

A light plane piloted by an American buzzed Havana early Saturday, dropping scores of anti-communist leaflets that called President Fidel Castro an “old dinosaur” and urged Cubans to revolt against his “tyrannical regime,” witnesses and U.S. authorities said.

The U.S. Customs Service said the single-engine Cessna 172 was flown from South Florida by Ly Tong, a Vietnamese-born, 51-year-old “strident anti-communist” who had no apparent ties to Castro’s exiled foes in Miami.

Cuba launched two MIG fighter jets in response to the invasion of its airspace, and the U.S. Air Force sent up an F-16, but the Cessna returned to Florida safely, customs spokesman Michael Sheehan said.

“Suffice to say this is a very lucky man to be alive right now,” he said.

Cuban officials were not available for comment.

There have been few attempts at unauthorized flight into Cuban airspace since Havana shot down two planes in 1996 flown near the island by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Four pilots were killed in that incident.